Standing on a corner in Manhattan every day, a Pakistani immigrant named Ahmad sells his coffee and bagels to the fellow New Yorkers from a cart. After becoming friends with a local female newsstand worker and a wealthy man named, Ahmad’s troubled past comes up and out, bringing his new found friendships thru stress and ultimately unending.

What is great about Iranian-American filmmaker Ramin Bahrani is that he is an extension of the normal human being living and striving for the American Dream. He obviously has a sense of humor as is seen in the short films that are bonus material on the DVD. Yet, his most pervasive work is thoughtful drama like Man Push Cart.

Ramin is decisive. Being a director is not easy. But the job title has become too commercial. Anyone with a handi-cam states they are a director. What Ramin pushes is thought. He thinks about what the viewer will see. Its a venture of being the filmmaker watching a movie as a regular audience member. Its two brains in one.

There wasn’t much happiness with the situation on-screen and it didn’t have an ending, which fits the lifestyle that many immigrants get when they come here looking to make money that they otherwise would not have and hopefully they can either bring their family here too.

The story is not an escape from reality, its an escape to reality for the viewers. Look at other films made within the last ten years. They are either complete fantasy films or they are “based on a true story”. Man Push Cart pushes a boundary for true stories. There is no writing on the screen stating it could be true. We are not idiots. We know this is a story. Its realism is what makes the story exciting and makes us want to do something about this crazy world we live in.

Do see this movie.