THE VERTICAL CITY

New York, 1929. Daniel, a young architect working in the construction of the Empire State, receives a message from his father. He has not heard anything from his father in the last eighteen years, and he will not arrive in time to see him alive. In the tiny apartment where they should meet, Daniel only finds his father’s body with two bullet holes in his back and a manuscript with a dedication to him. Thanks to this document, he will discover the story of his father, Joan Casas, a child who emigrated from Barcelona to New York in 1880 and fought for his place in the dangerous streets of the Lower East Side of Manhattan.

In La ciutat vertical the life of an immigrant is linked to the expansion of New York in the turn of the twentieth century. A city that sees the birth of skyscrapers, subways, bridges over the East River … but also organized crime. The great metropolis that gives second and third chances, and where everyone can strive to make the American dream real.

Winner of Carlemany Award 2010.