Ratas, Ratones, Rateros

The world of the young and naïve petty thief Salvador (Marco Bustos) gets turned upside down by the arrival of his cousin Angel (Carlos Valencia), an ex-con searching for easy money and a place to hide. Salvador, who wants to escape from his violent father and his suffocating family, becomes involved in several of his cousin’s dubious transactions. Both find themselves with Carolina, their affluent cousin. During a party to celebrate her graduation, Angel picks everyone’s pockets and leaves with Salvador. That is only the start of a lot of hassles and misery. Salvador is very good at sabotaging the few things that make his life worthwhile and dragging his friends and family down with him. Ratas, Ratones, Rateros provides an intimate look at crime in a Latin-American land and is a story about lost innocence. Sebastián Cordero wanted to make an exciting film on a limited budget and certainly succeeded. It does not just possess an infectious energy, but also a compassionate look at the characters, two factors that make the film a joy to watch – not unimportant in a country that manages to produce one feature about every two or three years. The title, Ratas, Ratones, Rateros, is made up of terms of abuse: declensions of the well- known rodent.