The Saint of the Impossible

The twin brothers Paul and Tito are teenagers with a special sense of humour but with an utter lack of awareness of the world’s faults. They live with their young mother, Rafaella, and besides their worship for her, they secretly admire Saint Rita. The latter is the saint of the impossible and she is the one they want to appease.

They manage – for better or for worse – to survive between insecure jobs and language courses for those who, just like them, want to come a step closer to the American dream, which seems forbidden for them. Rafaella, who in spite of her daily exhaustion does not lose her courage, meets a writer in the fastfood restaurant where she works, an ambiguous but seemingly innocent man, called Ewald.  

When a model called Kristin enrols in the English lessons Paul and Tito take, both of them fall in love with her. The film, just like Arnon Grunberg’s eponymous novel, explores topics such as migration, poverty, family, puberty and sexuality.

The brothers want to be seen and not only deliver orders on their bicycles in the chaos of New York. Because of their charm, they become friends with Kristin, but they do not know that she has a hidden agenda. Their mother, Rafaella, also gets into trouble when her lover convinces her to quit her job at the restaurant and start an illegal business called Mama Burrito. The wonderful acting performances and adventurous passion of the main characters encourage us to be philanthropists in its most unaffected form.