This movie is low budget, no known actors, no big advertising ...or any for that matter....and it's absolutely great!yes it's sad, even seemingly tragic. I grew up very poor and it was really tough for me to watch because it made me relive a time of my life when I was a kid that I just rather forget. It's believable because stuff like this actually happens all the time everyday. You find yourself saying "oh no, don't go there" or " Oh no what are they going to do now?" a lot in this movie. Just when you think things are getting better...something else goes wrong. At times you just find yourself telling the TV ..... "no don't that!" It really is worth a watch. lucky for me I know Spanish so it makes it a bit better, but even if you don't it's no biggie. If you 're a "real" movie fan, this is a must see.

This film is an insult to the intelligence of anyone who grew up Colombian in New York City. The rest of you can wallow in the 'grittiness" and the 'emotion' of the film, but those of us who have lived the immigrant experience, especially the Colombian one in New York, would find this nothing more than overwrought, sentimental tripe.Not to say this didn't, or couldn't happen; but if two young children are suddenly homeless, while surrounded by their fellow countrymen, (Jackson Heights at one time had the highest concentration of Colombians in the nation) in the greatest, richest, most generous city in the world, and the best their mother can do for them is make them sleep in a park and force them into child labor collecting trash, then let's just say they didn't exactly win the lottery when it came having a mother. Any modern immigrant would watch this in disbelief seeing that this deserving mother was not availing herself our social safety net. "But she didn't speak English, and was brand new in the country!", you say ....Oh please !!! No Colombian immigrant, especially by the eighties or nineties when this movie supposedly takes place, steps into this country without having a support network of family and friends ready, willing, and able to lend a hand, or guide them to the proper services should the need arise.I do not say this lightly. I am Colombian and grew up in Queens in the sixties and seventies. My own family had tough times; we were even left homeless and destitute in the early seventies when we survived a horrific car crash that left my father hospitalized for a year.Family, friends, neighbors, even total strangers rallied to our cause. In our case, it was the Church, in the form of Catholic Charities, who provided for us, and got us over the toughest time of our lives.Enjoy the movie for the acting and the sentiment, but if you think you've seen 'reality' ... well then, you're probably beyond hope anyway.The most real thing in the movie was the empanada making ... try them! .... they really are DELICIOUS!!!!

Entre Nos is a captivating film from the very beginning. It is the story of a family, who has just immigrated to the United States from Cambodia. Mariana's husband left her and their two children, stranded with no hope in Queens, for a job in Miami. After some time Mariana, Gabi, and Andrea are left without a home, without their things or clothing, left to wander the streets, rummaging through garbage.Mariana's role as a mother is portrayed brilliantly. She is strong and yet weak at the same time. She does what she can to provide for her family, without lowering her own morals. In many ways her situation can be applied to more than just immigrant families. Directors/writers Gloria La Morte and Paola Mendoza portray the life of a woman who has been abandoned by her husband, left with nothing of monetary support and with children to care for. The role of Mariana showed that it is possible for someone to put aside their own personal pain, accept their situation, move forward, and even find happiness and moments of joy; if not for themselves, then for the sake of their children.The two child actor/actress have were very effective in expressing the emotions of a particular situation. As the film goes on and the scenes become more and more intense and emotionally wrought, these two excel in their acting abilities. They are able to draw the viewer in to feel the emotions the situation warrants.This film has a happy ending, with the mother finding work and being able to give her children something more. However, there is not really a lot of emphasize put on that. One does not know how exactly Mariana was able to get her job or the details of their life changing for the better after the lady at the apartment helped them. These details are not important to the directors. What seems to be more important is to show the process the family went through to become who they are today. This story, though specific to Mariana and her family, is common place among immigrant families. However, it goes beyond just the common fate of immigrant families to be applicable to anyone and everyone. The idea expressed is that it doesn't matter what life dishes out to you, you can fight it. No matter who you are or where you are from, each person posses the ability to fight for something better and find joy along the way, even in the most miserable and darkest of times. Throughout the film there is an emphasis on the joy that the family finds between each other, in order to endure the hardship and continue fighting for a better life.This film is very well done, with the ideas and concepts being expressed in a very effective way. I would highly recommend it to anyone.

Entre Nos provides a completely different perspective on immigration. Being based on a true story about the director, main actress and writer's (all the same person) family, you begin to wonder where American's get their ideas about immigration form. When most Americans think about immigration these days they think of people stealing jobs and depending on their taxes for the immigrant's children to go to school. However, this movie offers an almost disturbing alternative to this cushy life American's picture. Between the abortion, the trash collecting, the father leaving the family behind and all these other horrible events, it's hard to look at immigration in that light.In the beginning, we are introduced to a Latino family from Colombia that seems pretty happy together in New York City. They have food to spare, friends over for dinner, clean clothing and a roof over their head, but when the father leaves you know he's not going to come back, and with him, he takes away the stability that the family has been depending on. There's not any food, clothing or even a place to sleep at night soon after he leaves.During this time there is only trash and bleak surroundings that are gross and dangerous. The lighting is harsh on the screen and brings out shadows in not only their surroundings, but their faces, and helps add to the overbearing grimness in the film. Not to mention the sad tune playing in the background, but the thing that makes this film all too real to the audience has to be the expressions on the actors/actresses faces and the way they are dressed. The tired, pained and hungry expressions that you find in all of the faces is so real this almost seems more like a documentary than an art-house film. Then there's the clothes that they're wearing are filthy and covered in dirt, and just hanging off of them. Their belongings are small and mostly hold no real significance. Other than the family photo that the son keeps in his pocket to remember the times when his father was around.This was a great movie about survival, and I'd recommend it to anyone that wants to watch a heart-wrenching film for a good cry. I'd even recommend it to anyone that thinks that immigration is some life of luxury, in order to see an alternative point of view.