Sisyphean labor: Razvi photo: Films Philos Man Push Cart Written and directed by Ramin Bahrani Films Philos, opens September 8 more film most popular most commented Short Order, a Movie about Munching and Mating, Tracking Shots by ABIGAIL DEUTSCH Prince Caspian by Ella Taylor Paraguayan Hammock by J. Hoberman James Nares's Downtown Empire Strikes Back by Ed Halter Reprise Tracking Shots by Ella Taylor Girls Love Gay Male Porn Pucker Up by Tristan Taormino My Boyfriend's Kink Is Getting Fat. What Do I Do? Savage Love by Dan Savage Sex and the City Spoilers: A Sneak Preview of What Really Happens to Carrie and the Girls by Lynn Yaeger The Barely Legal Empire of Tony Alamo by Maria Luisa Tucker Our Favorite Writers Pick Their Favorite Obscure Books Summer Guide by ALEXANDER NAZARYAN NYPD Inaction Over a Missing Black Woman Found Dead Sparks a Historic Racial-Bias Lawsuit (9) Sean Gardiner Devo-Inspired Art in East Williamsburg (8) Maro The Barely Legal Empire of Tony Alamo (5) Maria Luisa Tucker David Mamet: Why I Am No Longer a 'Brain-Dead Liberal' (4) David Mamet Runnin' Scared: Deep South of Houston: Is a Soul-Food Restaurant Too Black for Soho? (4) Runnin' Scared: Chloe A. Hilliard

It also bears witness to the underslept, four-to-eight urban graveyard shift like few movies ever have, a credit to nocturnal cinematographer Michael Simmonds. Ahmad's situation is dished out in small, teasing servings: He was once a budding pop star in Lahore; he has a son currently kept with his bitter in-laws; he's a widower. More vitally to him, he's $500 away from owning his cart, and the Bicycle Thieves schema of fragile subsistence economics hovers over his days. There's no story, just reluctant relationships—between Ahmad and a wealthy compatriot (Charles Daniel Sandoval) who vacillates between promising to help the erstwhile celebrity and using him to perform chores, and a dewy Spanish girl (Leticia Dolera) working a newspaper kiosk. Superbly cast, Dolera's a bright light in the movie's dank street life, graced with a wholesome plainness and a smile that makes you want to fall asleep on her shoulder. Razvi, a sympathetic non-pro who once worked as a cartman himself, settles most of the time for an introverted solemnity.

Coming armed with a small battery of festival awards, Man Push Cart is a diminutive film, finally—vying for a neorealist vibe, it lacks the Italian history makers' narrative urgency, and the sociopolitical conflict at the heart of the immigration "issue" is hardly engaged. Bahrani seems happiest when simply capturing the meaningless but remotely reassuring repartee that foreign nationals performing menial jobs have with their customers. It's a terribly slight comfort, all things considered, but the film's stance in the end is as ambiguous as Ahmad's—humane and forgiving, but wondering if facile courtesies are as close as we'll ever get.