Widely praised at the Cannes, Berlin & Toronto Film Festivals, CHOP SHOP is the second remarkable feature from the internationally acclaimed young director Ramin Bahrani, who was hailed 'the new great American film director' by eminent critic Roger Ebert. On the outskirts of Queens, & just steps from some of New York’s most iconic landmarks, Alejandro, a tough & ambitious Latino street orphan on the verge of adolescence, lives & works in a ‘ Chop Shop’
- an illegal workshop breaking stolen cars for the purpose of selling them as parts. In this ramshackle world of mud, rust, graffiti, & twisted scrap metal populated by illegal immigrants & low-level adult criminals, young Alejandro struggles to pursue his goal of making a better life for himself & his spirited 16-year-old sister, Isamar.