Isao is ten years old. He is gay and fully aware that such sensibility will get him in a lot of trouble with everyone around him. His mother wants him to be an Olympic swimmer, like his father was. Along with the complicity of his childhood best friend, Aleciram, a smart, sassy and faithful cohort, they embark on a journey of self discovery and coming of age in very unusual ways: through a near death experience.

The film is Spanish with English subtitles and can be orderd for $ 10 at TLAvideo

Rich with mystery and steeped in mythical superstition, this Mexican voyage into the world of the non-quite-dead finds new and fascinating ways to address the age old dilemma of being an outcast. Slightly reminiscent of Ma Vie En Rose’s Ludovic, Isao likes to dress up, carry a doll, and dreams of being a famous fashion designer in Paris. Left for dead after an unsavory encounter with a pederast gym teacher, little gay boy Isao wakes up in a bizarrely quiet hospital staffed by a single nurse and an unseen administrator. Suddenly joined by a confused lawyer with a bullet wound to the head, young Isao seeks out answers from the cryptic nurse, from his strange new companion, and from within himself. As their stories unfold in Limbo (the waiting room between heaven and hell), Isao’s best friend holds vigil over his still-breathing body, along with a blind janitor who knows a thing or two about displaced ghosts. In a coming-of-age experience befitting his unique temperament, Isao’s voyage into maturity takes place not in the confines of the physical world, but in the unknowable realm of an out-of-body experience.

Thanks to leetboys for posting about this in the milkboard and to Alejandro Morales for the review.