12 HOURS

Sex. There, we've said it. The inescapable act that brings us all here, one way or another. And, for some people, the animus, the pulse, the life force, the center of their world. Especially in a place like San Juan at the close of the work week. Merrily-divorced office ladies Ada and Liza indoctrinate aptly-named cohort Virginia into their bachelorette order (her husband left her for another man); this Si-Si sisterhood gives the mousey friend a makeover and hits the porn boutiques and the decadent club scene for action. Liza's adolescent daughter Cristina, meanwhile, disobeys single-mom directives to stay home, and sneaks out to a teenage party recommended by her tarted-up schoolmates as the right venue for losing her virginity. Handsome Abraham, aircraft mechanic by day, Puerto Rican gigolo by night, heads for a dangerous liaison at a swank hotel, while transsexual Jackeline Bom Bom makes some new acquaintances in desperate straits prior to her big musical number on stage at a gay night club. Grandfatherly Roberto cruises the streets in his taxi well past retirement age in order to pay for his adored wife's mounting medical bills, while frustrated TV presenter Kathy drives down the same boulevards with her disgruntled cameraman, having been given 12 hours to come up with a news story of real substance in a metropolis sensated by surface. Humming with voltage, heat, music, neon and desire, 12 HOURS weaves its multiple story threads into a fast-moving and coherent ensemble of truths and consequences, sex and the la ciudad. (In Spanish with English subtitles)