If you are looking for a deep and meaningful movie, you are in the wrong place! However if you are looking for a delightfully funny and slightly irreverent movie, this could be the one for you. Written and directed by Judy Hecht Dumontet, Tortilla Heaven is great family fun.
The action is set in Falfurrias, New Mexico, a sleepy community boasting a population of 73. Our hero is Isidor Navarro (José Zúñiga) , who is the proprietor of the town’s only restaurant, Tortilla Heaven. Falfurrias is a tight-knit community centered around church and family, in many ways an idyllic but impoverished existence.
One Sunday morning Isidor makes a batch of tortillas in readiness for the after church crowd. Unfortunately things are not going well with his dough, and he is frustrated, not just with the dough, but with his life in general.
He makes the best Mexican food for many miles around, maybe the best food in the whole of New Mexico, but few people eat at Tortilla Heaven because Falfurrias is three miles from the highway, and there is only a dirt road, a pinche, and few travelers want to make the dusty trek. “Jesus pinche Christ”, Isador shouts, his frustrations peaking.
The tortilla that he makes burns in a unique way — a picture of Jesus is formed on it. Not being a seeker of fame, Isidor tries to keep the tortilla a secret, but secrets are hard to keep in a town with a population of 73. The news spreads like wildfire, and everyone wants to see the tortilla with the picture.
Falfurrias becomes a very popular place, the opportunities to become rich are everywhere. Everyone has an angle, everyone wants to own this tortilla that can change the fortunes of the town. The Mayor thinks that the profits should be used to build a golf course, the local priest Father Pancacio (Marcelo Tubert) declares “Jesus Christ is the registered trademark of the Roman Catholic Church!”
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