Workforce

David Zonana's 2020 Mexican film starts on a luxury house going up in Mexico City. Francisco's brother dies on the site and the wealthy owner refuses any compensation, leaving the widow with nothing. Francisco tries the legal route first, then applies his own solution: the workers assigned to finish the house take it over and move in. From there the film does not become a revenge story. It watches how closely the order the workers build among themselves comes to resemble the one they escaped. Zonana's telling is cold and held at a distance, with almost no music and a camera that records without passing judgement. It belongs to the harder wing of Mexican cinema about class. Who it's for: viewers who want films that think about class and labour and do not flinch at an uncomfortable conclusion. Who it's not for: anyone who needs the wronged side to stay morally clean, because the film refuses that comfort.