Poetic, Affecting Tales of Life and Survival in ‘The City’

David Riker’s “The City” (“La Ciudad”), one of the most memorable movies in last year’s Latino Film Festival, opens a one-week run today at the Nuart. This sensitive, beautifully expressive film is composed of four vignettes mostly involving the bitter struggle for survival among the most vulnerable of New York City’s wave of Latin American immigrants.

Each segment opens with one of its principal figures having his or her picture taken at the same photo studio, the old-fashioned kind that offers a selection of kitschy roll-down idyllic backdrops, settings at ironic odds with the customers’ harsh circumstances.

The first, “Bricks,” tells of a young laborer--scavenging for bricks with other workers--severely injured when an old factory wall collapses on him and speedy aid proves impossible; the second, “Home,” finds a young man (Cipriano Garcia) newly arrived from Puebla, Mexico, meeting a young woman (Leticia Herrera), coincidentally from his neighborhood back home, only to lose track of her.

The third, “The Puppeteer,” deals with a homeless puppeteer (Jose Rabelo) who has contracted tuberculosis from staying in a shelter; he tries to enroll his beloved little daughter (Stephanie Viruet) in school only to be refused because he cannot produce either a phone bill or a rent receipt. The final, and strongest, sequence, “Seamstress,” chronicles a sweatshop seamstress (Silvia Goiz) who hasn’t been paid in weeks; she’s struggling to get $400 to pay for her daughter’s hospitalization in her native country.

Shot in black and white, “The City” has a poetic, flowing quality combined with superbly composed images that attest to Riker’s training as a photographer. Actually, Riker began this film while a student at NYU’s graduate film school. One day Riker came upon a man sitting in a station wagon listening to the radio while a little girl in the back seat seemed to be daydreaming, rocking back and forth. As they both seemed to be somehow suspended in time, Riker wondered what they were waiting for; from that wondering he was inspired to make “The Puppeteer.”

Once it was completed he was able to show it by way of inducement to the nonactors he wanted to appear in the other three segments. Eventually he came up with a feature-length film.

Inevitably, “The City” recalls the films of Italian Neo-Realism not only in style but also in Riker’s ability to elicit the most natural portrayals from nonprofessionals. “The City” is a most-affecting experience, an impressive accomplishment in all its aspects.

* Unrated. Times guidelines: adult themes and situations.

‘The City’

(‘La Ciudad’)

Anthony Rivera: The Boy

Cipriano Garcia: The Young Man

Leticia Herrera: The Young Woman

Jose Rabelo: The Father

Stephanie Viruet: The Daughter

Silvia Goiz: The Seamstress

Antonio Peralta: The Photographer

A Zeigeist Films release. Writer-director-editor David Riker. Producers Riker and Paul S. Mezey. Executive producers Doug Mankoff and Robin Alper. Cinematographer Harlan Bosmajian. Music Tony Adzinikolov. Production designers Ariane Burgess and Roshelle Berliner. In Spanish and English, with Spanish subtitles. Running time: 1 hour, 28 minutes.

Exclusively at the Nuart through Thursday, 11272 Santa Monica Blvd., West Los Angeles, (310) 478-6379.