The Immigrant

1921. In search of a new start and the American dream, Ewa Cybulski and her sister sail to New York from their native Poland. When they reach Ellis Island, doctors discover that Magda is ill, and the two women are separated. Ewa is released onto the mean streets of Manhattan while her sister is quarantined. Alone, with nowhere to turn, Ewa quickly falls prey to Bruno, a charming but wicked man who takes her in and forces her into prostitution...

"Modernity in cinema is less about inventing something new – an idea which has obsessed Hollywood for the last few decades – than about returning to the past to build upon cinema’s foundations. The films of James Gray both in their thought and expression reinvent our conception of classicism. They are, therefore, entirely modern."
Jean Douchet, film historian