'Man Push Cart'

New York Times


REVIEW SUMMARY

The murky neorealist film "Man Push Cart" follows the grueling routine of Ahmad (Ahmad Razvi), a Pakistani immigrant who rises before dawn to stock his metal pushcart with coffee, bagels and doughnuts, which he tows by hand to a Midtown Manhattan street corner overlooked by the imperial spire of the Chrysler Building. As a sideline he deals in bootleg pornographic DVD's. A former pop star in his homeland, Ahmad recently lost his wife and now lives in Brooklyn. Exactly why he immigrated to America is never clearly spelled out, but he occupies a tiny Brooklyn apartment too small to house his young son who lives with his hostile in-laws. Some financial relief appears when Mohammad (Charles Daniel Sandoval), a slippery Pakistani businessman, offers Ahmad work fixing up his new apartment, along with empty promises to help him resurrect his musical career. A casual relationship with Noemi (Leticia Dolera), a Spanish woman temporarily working at her family's newsstand, develops into a tentative romance. But opportunities are only straws in the wind. In its hard, gritty vision of New York life at street level, the movie aspires to be an American-South Asian "Bicycle Thief"; it's two-thirds successful. — Stephen Holden, The New York Times

Type: Features
Distributor: Films Philos
Rating: NR
Running Time: 87 Minutes
Starring: Charles Daniel Sandoval, Leticia Dolera, Ahmad Razvi, Ali Reza, Farooq "Duke" Mohammad
Directed by: Ramin Bahrani
Man Push Cart
2005-USA/Iran-Urban Drama