With his second feature film, Chop Shop, director Ramin Bahrani carries on his theme of exploring the "invisible people" of society that he started with his first film, Man Push Cart, which played Sundance (and other fests) in 2006. Where Man Push Cart showed a cross-section of the life of a former Pakistani pop star reduced to selling doughnuts and coffee to busy Manhattanites, in Chop Shop Bahrani shows us the life of a young Latino boy who lives and works in the Iron Triangle district of New York City. Bahrani took time out of pre-prod for his latest film, Solo, to chat with Cinematical by phone about Chop Shop, Man Push Cart, and his unique style of making films.

Cinematical: Both Man Push Cart and Chop Shop have the similar thematic element of focusing on people whose lives most people don't spend a lot of energy thinking about -- the guy who sells them coffee and bagels on their way to work, the street kid hustling in a chop shop. Why the focus on these "invisible" people?

Ramin Bahrani: I don't know how you feel about this, and I don't know what the reaction is going to be to Chop Shop when it's released in the States, when more people in the States see this film. I think both these films are about immigrant-type characters: in Chop Shop, Ale is young enough that he maybe could have been born here, or if he and Isamar immigrated they were very young, that was left deliberately ambiguous -- but I don't think that's the essential tissue of the film. I just feel like I'm tired of seeing the same independent films being made over and over again. This "mumblecore" stuff that's popular right now -- I'm not interested in these stories about these really attractive white kids, and their really attractive friends, and their problems. I'm interested in these groups of people, the people you don't see featured so much in films, and that's why I focus on them.

I see the connection between these characters in my films, and the kind of people who will see the film – mostly white, educated, the bourgeois, you know? Not that there's anything wrong with those people at all, it's just that they're the most likely demographic to see independent films at all. I'd like to see someone figure out how to market a film like Chop Shop to Hispanic school-age kids, but that's just not reality.

But as a filmmaker I don't see it as my job to connect those pieces of society. There is a connection between the screen and the viewer, and how the viewer reacts to it, but I'm not interested in why that chop shop exists, or why Ahmad's character exists, or why the taxi driver (in his next film, Solo) exists. I'm not a moral filmmaker, there's no moral message in the end of my films, there's no moral question. The characters are pretty pragmatic. In Chop Shop, Ale is involved in many things that people watching the film may find immoral or illegal, and they may be confused about why there's no judgment in the film, why there's no good or bad in the film. But it's who he is, he's surviving, and he's a kid – he doesn't make those judgments. That's just where he is, and I just think it's not my place to judge them.

From the moment I saw Ramin Bahrani's Man Push Cart at Sundance a couple years ago, I knew I'd found a filmmaker I was going to like. In Man Push Cart, Bahrani took a figure most folks who live in or visit New York City take for granted -- the guys who operate the shiny metal pushcarts you see dotting every other street corner, pimping doughnuts and coffee to busy Manhattanites -- and explored the fictional existence of pushcart man Ahmad (Ahmad Razvi), a former Pakistani pop star turned average deeply depressed guy trying to survive in the wake of his wife's death. Man Push Cart impressed me because of both the depth with which Bahrani explored his character and the gritty realism with which the film plopped the viewer into Ahmad's dismal, but not hopeless, existence.

Bahrani scored well with Man Push Cart -- the film premiered at Venice before going on to play a slew of fests, including Sundance, before getting a limited theatrical release and a DVD release the UK and Spain (soon to come in the US, according to Bahrani's official website). But in spite of being called " ... among the most striking American independent movies of the last year" (along with In Between Days and Cavite) by Dennis Lim, writing for the New York Times, Man Push Cart was rather overlooked by a lot of critics at Sundance and didn't find huge theatrical success. Roger Ebert liked the film enough to slot it in his Overlooked Film Festival the same year, but the film's total box office is just over $55,000, according to Box Office Mojo. I was disappointed it didn't do better off the fest circuit; it was one of the best independent films I saw that year, and I eagerly waited to see what Bahrani was going to do which his next film, and I'm pleased to be able to say that with Chop Shop, Bahrani has a solid follow-up.

Los Angeles, as any filmmaker can tell you, can be a tough town for independent films. We love independent film here at Cinematical, and so we will do our part to make sure film fans on the left coast know when good indie films are opening near them. This weekend there are (at least) two indie films with West Coast openings.

Man Push Cart, which is going into its third week in New York City with strong per screen numbers, opens today in Los Angeles and Pasadena at Laemmle Theaters and at the Fallbrook 7 in West Hills. Man Push Cart, directed by Ramin Bahrani and starring promising newcomer Ahmad Razvi, tells the tale of a former Pakistani pop star who sells coffee and donuts out of a NYC push cart to make a living. This beautifully understated film was one of my favorites at Sundance earlier this year, and was also a fave of Roger Ebert, who liked the film so much he featured it at his own Overlooked Film Festival. If you're in NYC, the film moves this weekend from the Angelika to Village East Cinemas.

Also opening on the West Coast this weekend in Los Angeles and San Francisco is Georgia Lee's Red Doors, a film about a dysfunctional Chinese-American family whose patriarch is struggling to find meaning in life following his own retirement, and his daughters growing up. Lee and her producers financed this film themselves rather than compromise with studios on having the family be Asian-American and having one of the daughters have a lesbian romance, and they have worked overtime to market their film at the grassroots level on a tiny indie-film budget. There will be two premiere parties for the film this weekend: In San Fran, the party will be at Thai Stick tonight, and in Los Angeles there will be a party at Garden of Eden on Saturday. The cast and filmmakers will be attending screenings and doing post-show Q&As throughout opening weekend as well.

Red Doors will play in San Fran at The Clay Theater; in Los Angeles at The Music Hall, The Pasadena Playhouse, and The Encino Town Center; and is still playing New York at The Village East Cinemas. Need more info, or want to bring a whole group along? Check out the film's website.

If you go see either film, come back and let us know what you thought about them!

Note: This interview originally ran during the Sundance Film Festival. It is being rerun now because the film opened yesterday in New York City.

Man Push Cart, a film about a former Pakistani pop star selling coffee and doughnuts from a New York City pushcart, played to very receptive audiences at the Sundance Film Festival and sold before the end of the festival. Cinematical sat down at Sundance with cinematographer Michael Simmonds, star Ahmad Razvi, and director Ramin Bahrani (pictured above, from left to right), to talk about their film.

Cinematical: Ramin, I read an interview with New York Magazine where you talked about being inspired by Camus' The Myth of Sisyphus in making this film. Can you talk about that?

Ramin: Camus is one of my favorite writers, and in the myth of Sisyphus, the story is about this guy who is condemned to endlessly push this boulder up a mountain, only to have it roll back down. And I had this image of this pushcart guy, hauling this cart over and over again.

Cinematical: You really had Ahmad pulling this heavy cart through New York City traffic. Were you nervous about that?

Ahmad: I was, yeah. (laughs)

Michael: We all were.

Ramin: There was one scene where Ahmad drifted to the middle and these semis were driving by. That was a little scary then. And the time when he fell, too. But here's the interesting thing – no one ever mentions that at the end there are two people pushing the cart instead of one – and that is a major change.

Note: This review originally ran during the Sundance Film Festival, and is being rerun now because the film has opened in New York City.

In Ramin Bahrani's film, Man Push Cart, Ahmad (Ahmad Ravsi), a former Pakistani pop star, works as one of the city's many pushcart vendors. You never think, when you see those shiny silver carts on every street corner, of how they get there. The vendors who are lucky enough and have enough money for a truck tow their carts, but many more, like Ahmad, push and pull their carts to their designated corner themselves. Bahrani talked in an interview with New York Magazine about watching the city's pushcart vendors and being reminded of Albert Camus' The Myth of Sisyphus, in which Sisyphus is condemned to endlessly push a boulder up a mountain, only to have it roll back down. The endless rhythm of Ahmad's days - take the train from his tiny Brooklyn apartment to Manhattan, pick up his cart, pull it - through dangerous New York City traffic - to his corner, then spend the day selling coffee and bagels to hurried New Yorkers, having only the most miniscule shreds of actual human interaction with the occasional friendly regular, then haul the cart back, only to start all over again the next day. Bahrani shows us Ahmad struggling with his cart again and again, establishing a rhythm for the film that mirrors the monotonous parade of days that is Ahmad's life.

Ahmad's life is bleak, and newcomer Ravsi portrays him perfectly, radiating quiet despair. His wife died a year ago and he is separated from his young son, who is being raised by his in-laws, because his apartment is too small and he can't take care of him while working all day. Once a very popular pop star, he is now reduced to selling pirated DVDs on the side and accepting demeaning odd jobs from Mohammad, a wealthy Pakistani who lives in the neighborhood. Mohammad is one of those slippery, successful fellows who is condescending without being aware of it. When he realizes who Ahmad is, he seems to take great pleasure in this former flavor of the month doing menial jobs for him, even as he makes empty promises to help Ahmad restart his musical career.

Also in the neighborhood is Noemi (very engagingly played by Leticia Dolera), a Spanish girl working her relatives' newsstand down the street, and there is chemistry between Noemi and Ahmad from the first time they meet. Ahmad is still grieving his wife, though, and is so mired in desolation, which he buries in the comforting rhythm of the hard labor of his job, he barely notices - at first. Noemi and Ahmad become friends, and maybe they'll become more, but then Mohammad steps in with his cash and opera tickets and party invites and second home in upstate New York to woo her. Ahmad is reluctant to try to go after her himself, in part because of his dead wife, and in part because he feels he can't compete with Mohammad's bank account. Noemi isn't a shallow girl, however; she sees through Mohammad's smooth moves and into Ahmad's heart, but he can't seem to get enough momentum going to pursue her.

Man Push Cart is a beautifully executed film. The stunning cinematography shows off the new, crisp and clean New York, and the city is almost used as a character in and of itself in the film - the guys at the produce stand, the garbage man, the customers, the vendors, even the taxis and buses Ahmad must navigate his cart through, all playing their parts in the ceaselss play that is life in the city that doesn't sleep. This is a painstakingly rendered film about perserverance in the face of emptiness and seemingly insurmountable odds, and yet it isn't a cliched, all's well that ends well film. Ahmad perserveres, yes, but will things ever get better for him? Bahrani, thankfully, avoids the temptation to give us a phony, heartwarming conclusion to Ahmad's difficult life; he leaves that question unanswered, as it is probably unanswered for many of the real pushcart vendors (and other people droning away in the service industries, serving people who largely ignore the humanity of the people waiting on them) out there. This film has already played to several film festivals, and there's a lot of buzz around it here at Sundance; it will be interesting to see what Sundance audiences and critics think of it.

Man Push Cart, a film about a former Pakistani pop star selling coffee and doughnuts from a New York City pushcart, played to very receptive audiences at the Sundance Film Festival and sold before the end of the festival. Cinematical sat down at Sundance with cinematographer Michael Simmonds, star Ahmad Razvi, and director Ramin Bahrani (pictured above, from left to right), to talk about their film.

Cinematical: Ramin, I read an interview with New York Magazine where you talked about being inspired by Camus' The Myth of Sisyphus in making this film. Can you talk about that?

Ramin: Camus is one of my favorite writers, and in the myth of Sisyphus, the story is about this guy who is condemned to endlessly push this boulder up a mountain, only to have it roll back down. And I had this image of this pushcart guy, hauling this cart over and over again.

Cinematical: You really had Ahmad pulling this heavy cart through New York City traffic. Were you nervous about that?

Ahmad: I was, yeah. (laughs)

Michael: We all were.

Ramin: There was one scene where Ahmad drifted to the middle and these semis were driving by. That was a little scary then. And the time when he fell, too. But here’s the interesting thing – no one ever mentions that at the end there are two people pushing the cart instead of one – and that is a major change.

Man Push Cart director Ramin Bahrani sent out a press release last night that his film has closed a deal for North American rights with Films Philos. Films Philos will open the film in late fall/early winter 2006. As we previously reported, Man Push Cart closed deals for distribution in France, Greece and Italy a few days ago. Man Push Cart is about a former Pakistani pop star who is selling coffee and doughnuts from a pushcart in New York City. Cinematical interviewed director Ramin Bahrani, star Ahmad Razvi and cinematographer Michael Simmonds, and will have the interview up soon. Indiewire ran a piece on the deal today and in their pic with the article (above), you can see the Cinematical tshirt peeking out from underneath Bahrani's sweater.

Reps for Man Push Cart, the independent feature film debut of writer/director Ramin Bahrani, reportedly are in negotiations with several distributors for distribution in France, Greece and Italy, and have an offer on the table for North American rights. The film features newcomer Ahmad Razvi as Ahmad, a Pakistani pop star selling coffee from a pushcart in New York. Ahmad is haunted by his wife's death and estranged from his young son. His life is bleak and depressing, especially compared to is pop star past, but Ahmad keeps struggling on, day after day, hauling his cart to is corner to sell coffee and dougnuts. The film is showing at the Sundace Film Festival out of competition in the Spectrum category.