Los Angeles Film Festival

POCHA (MANIFEST DESTINY) - DIRECTED BY MICHAEL DWYER & CO-DIRECTED BY KAITLIN MCLAUGHLIN 

WORLD PREMIERE - ZEITGEIST COMPETITION

In this gorgeously filmed crime thriller, first time feature filmmaker Michael Dwyer and his co-director Kiatlin Mclaughlin bring the intensity to POCHA (MANIFEST DESTINY) - an engaging story of a young woman caught in the cross hairs of life.   Chasing the bling of the lux life, Claudia, a twenty-something Chicana, makes bad choices – and gets caught.  Despite the fact that she barely speaks a word of Spanish, her undocumented status gets her deported to Mexico. After being deported from the U.S.A. for credit card fraud, she is forced to go to her estranged father’s cattle ranch in northern México. Although she can never legally return to the U.S. Claudia refuses to accept life with her estranged father and grandmother in her foreign “homeland,” and she spirals into a dangerous situation with a handsome smuggler. Veronica Sixtos gives a nuanced performance as an emotionally withholding anti-hero who’s trouble for anyone who dares to care about her. Pitched in a heightened style between a slow-burning thriller and a noir western, this smartly conceived allegorical tale confronts the dark side of the American dream.  

POCHA (MANIFEST DESTINY) features several extraordinary actors beginning with the hot Roberto Urbina, one of Colombia's finest young actors who is currently playing the Jesse Pinkman character in Metástasis, the Colombian adaptation of Breaking Bad; Veteran actor Julio Cedillo as Claudia's father -  played the title role in Tommy Lee Jones' THE THREE BURIALS OF MELQUIADES ESTRADA;  Maria Del Carmen Farias (Mexican Ariel Award nominee for El Sueño de Lu); Jorge Jimenez  (director/actor of Hermoso Silencio, a beautifully crafted film); Jesse Garcia (best known for his indie performance in Quinceañera), and amazing newcomer Veronica Sixtos.

Veronica Sixtos and Jesse Garcia were in QUINCEAÑERA (Sundance 2006) and Garcia is now in the Robert Rodriguez series FROM DUSK TILL DAWN.  Julio Cedillo played the title role in Tommy Lee Jones' THE THREE BURIALS OF MELQUIADES ESTRADA.  María del Carmen Farías was nominated for an "Ariel" Mexican Academy of Film Award in 2013 for EL SUEÑO DE LU.  Roberto Urbina was in CHE and plays the young meth dealer in the Spanish language version of BREAKING BAD. Both Roberto Urbina and Jorge Jimenez are featured characters in the upcoming Netflix drama NARCOS. 

SCREENING:

SUNDAY, JUNE 14 - 6:30 PM REGAL CINEMAS LA LIVE 10

PRESS / INDUSTRY SCREENING ONLY:

FRIDAY, JUNE 12 - 1:25 PM  REGAL CINEMAS LA LIVE 8