A Better Life
An undocumented gardener in East L.A. races against gang recruiters and immigration raids to protect his teenage son while desperately trying to recover the stolen truck that sustains their fragile livelihood.
“Every father wants more for his son.”
Synopsis
A gardener in East L.A. faces the challenge of keeping his son away from gangs and immigration agents while traveling across town to do landscaping work for the city's wealthy landowners.
Credits
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How many hands made this film
The scale of the collaboration
A crew of 44+ credited
Why a floor?
This is a minimum, not a total. We only count the credits we’ve captured so far, and coverage is uneven — a blockbuster might show a few hundred names while another of the same size shows a couple dozen. The real crews all ran into the thousands. The number here only grows as full credits are enriched — so we frame it as a floor, never a headcount.
Craft leads on file
Edited by Simon JacquetShot by Pascal MartiScored by Kim GabouryDesigned by Francois Abelanet
Box Office
2011 · Box office
📉 Underperformed — grossed 0.2× its budget
Why 2.5×?
Cinemas keep roughly half of every ticket sold, and a wide release’s marketing often costs about as much again as the film — so a movie needs to gross around 2.5× its production budget just to break even theatrically. It’s a rule of thumb, not the studio’s ledger (home video and streaming come later).
Worldwide gross
$1.8M
Opening week (7-day): $84K
Peak 4 theaters
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Cast & Crew
44 unique people credited
Top billed cast
Demian Bichir
as Carlos Galindo
Guillaume Canet
as Yann Lorant
Jose Julian
as Luis Galindo
Leila Bekhti
as Nadia Gorani
Slimane Khettabi
as Slimane Gorani
Eddie Piolin Sotelo
as Eddie 'Piolin' Sotelo
Abraham Belaga
as Le marchand de sommeil
Joaquin Cosio
as Blasco Martinez
Nicolas Abraham
as L'entrepreneur
Nancy Lenehan
as Mrs. Donnelley
Francois Favrat
as Le banquier
Gabriel Chavarria
as Ramon
Supporting cast
8Directors
2Writers
5Producers
6Other crew
12Antoine Carrard
Casting Director
Carla Hool
Casting Director
Joseph Middleton
Casting Director
Javier Aguirresarobe
Cinematographer
Pascal Marti
Cinematographer
Alexandre Desplat
Composer
Kim Gaboury
Composer
Peter Lambert
Editor
Simon Jacquet
Editor
Emmanuel Frechette
Production Designer
Francois Abelanet
Production Designer
Missy Stewart
Production Designer
Parents Guide
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