`CITY' POWERFULLY UNDERSTATED.

Byline: Stephen Holden The New York Times

As profoundly as Italian neo-realism has influenced American movies, it takes a work like David Riker's no-frills film ``The City'' (``La Ciudad'') to remind you of the genre's power in conveying the Darwinian realities of poor people's lives.

Consisting of four vignettes featuring non-professional Latin American actors, this deeply disquieting film plunges you onto the streets of some of New York's poorer neighborhoods where immigrants, many of whom barely speak English, live at the mercy of exploitative employers and inflexible institutions. Many have entered the United States illegally to make whatever money they can to send back home to their desperately poor families.

``The City,'' which opens Friday, blurs the line between documentary and fiction. Instead of a neatly structured short story, each vignette follows one or more characters into a crisis and leaves them with the situation unresolved.

The facts of their lives often remain sketchy. The stories are connected by scenes in a neighborhood studio in which one immigrant after another is photographed against a tropical backdrop. These scenes underscore the sense of each story being a here-and-now portrait of a life in flux.

In the first story, ``Bricks,'' a cluster of Latino men wait anxiously on a street corner for someone to arrive and hire them. A contractor (Joe Rigano) appears in a truck and scoops up 10 men, promising each $50 for a day's work. But after they are deposited by a demolished brick building in a dusty lot across the Hudson, the terms of employment are revised.

They are promised a measly 15 cents for each brick that is gathered and cleaned from the pile around the building. Although an organizer tries to muster some protest, the workers are too desperate to heed his call. Fights break out. And when a wall collapses on one laborer, he is dug out of the rubble and work halts as the others stand vigil over him.

In ``Home,'' a young man (Cipriano Garcia) newly arrived in the city strays into a ``sweet 15'' party and meets a serious young woman (Leticia Herrera) from the same Mexican town. Because he has no place to stay, she takes him home to her uncle's house, and a wary flirtation develops.

But the next morning, when he goes to buy some groceries, he can't find his way back. As the camera peers up at buildings that look alike, the film conveys the panicky feeling of being lost in an intimidating urban wilderness.

The title character of ``The Puppeteer'' is a homeless street performer (Jose Rabelo) suffering from tuberculosis who lives with his young daughter in a battered old station wagon, illegally parked on city property and crammed with their belongings. Having been told that every child in the city is guaranteed an education, the puppeteer attempts to enroll his daughter in school but is unable to produce a document or receipt to prove he lives in New York City.

In ``Seamstress,'' the final and most politically incendiary vignette, a young woman (Silvia Goiz), who works in a sweatshop where no one has been paid for weeks, receives a letter from home with the news that her daughter has fallen ill and needs $400 for an operation. When she pleads with her bosses for her back pay, she is threatened with dismissal.

In contrast to ``Bricks,'' her fellow workers rally around her in a spontaneous work stoppage. The scenes in the factory of tense, grim-faced managers bullying the terrified workers are simply blood chilling.

``The City'' doesn't go out of its way to pull your heartstrings, but its understatement makes it all the more devastating. The anxious, careworn faces of downtrodden people who have no choice but to continue as best they can convey their plight more powerfully than any words.

THE FACTS

The film: ``The City'' (``La Ciudad'') (not rated).

The stars: Ricardo Cuevas, Cipriano Garcia, Leticia Herrera, Jose Rabelo, Silvia Goiz and Rosa Caguana.

Behind the scenes: Written, directed and edited by David Riker. Produced by Riker and Paul S. Mezey. Released by Zeitgeist Films.

Running time: One hour, 20 minutes.

Playing: Nuart, West Los Angeles.

Our rating: Three and one half stars.