En el Séptimo Día

“Set in roughly the same neighborhood as OUR SONG, it contains a whole lot more plot. Jose (Fernando Cardona), a Mexican immigrant who works as a bike delivery person for a restaurant faces a conundrum: he’s required to work the following Sunday (a day he usually has off) for a special event, but his soccer team has their championship game scheduled for that day. He’s the team’s best player and they can’t win without him.

“EN EL SEPTIMO DIA is a sympathetic but fair look at how low-level immigrant employees are treated and perceived in this country. Jose is torn between wanting to be there for his team, but also retaining employment that allows him to care for his pregnant wife back home, in hopes of enabling her to join him before the baby arrives. Despite these uncommonly high stakes for a McKay film, it’s firmly of a piece with his earlier neorealism-driven work, often providing a valuable time capsule of Sunset Park, Brooklyn circa 2016. The contrast between the many scenes of Jose alone on his bike against the crowded apartment where he lives with many of his teammates, all of them immigrants, lends insight to both the personal and communal aspects of acclimating to an adopted home. 4 cats

(Currently streaming on MUBI; available to rent on AppleTV and other platforms.)