Good Day, Ramon

Ramón is eighteen and from northern Mexico. He has tried five times to cross into America and failed each time. His mother is ill and money is needed. He learns that a friend has an aunt living in Germany and decides to go there. He arrives; the address is wrong, there is no aunt, and he does not know the language. He ends up on the street. At a supermarket he meets an old woman. Ruth lives alone, her family does not call, and she speaks no Spanish. The two begin to understand each other without talking. Jorge Ramírez Suárez directs. Kristyan Ferrer plays Ramón and Ingeborg Schöner plays Ruth. It is a Mexican and German co-production. The relationship the film builds runs without language, and the narrative shows that not as an obstacle but as a possibility. The second matter it works at is old age; Ruth's loneliness is taken in the same frame as the young migrant's situation. The film had unexpected commercial success in Mexico and was submitted as the country's entry for the Oscars. It was shot close to documentary realism; the locations are real and the crowd scenes natural. Its limit is the emotional register; in the second half the narrative goes where it is expected and the resolution is too tidy. Migration is treated here not as a political argument but as a personal situation. Who it is for: viewers who like migration narratives and two hander drama. Who it is not for: it is predictable, the emotional register is high, and some sections run long.