By day, mariachi musician Carmelo Muñiz washes cars, but at night, he and his friend Arturo perform norteño and ranchero music for gringo tips in the taquerias and bars of San Francisco's Mission District. Carmelo's meager itinerant living belies the deep roots and binding ties he has to his native Mexico. His wife, two young daughters, and gravely ill mother rely on the money Carmelo sends to them in the little town of Salvatierra. When Carmelo returns to the life and loved ones he left behind a thousand miles south of the border, he resumes the wearying struggle against medieval poverty that he sought to escape in "el Norte." More than just a documentary dispatch from the illegal immigration frontlines, Mark Becker's ROMANTICO evolves from a verite view of undocumented alien subculture to a deeply personal and bittersweet dramatic story of family, fatherhood, identity and survival.
IMDb 7.1/1020061 h 19 min 