“La Cocina,” starring Rooney Mara and Raúl Briones, opens in the U.S. on Oct. 25 at New York’s Angelika Film Center and Nov. 1 at LA’s Laemmle Monica. Willa will handle U.S. distribution. The drama will then roll out to the top 10 U.S. markets. HanWay will handle international sales.

Directed and written by Alonso Ruizpalacios, "La Cocina" stars Briones as Pedro, an undocumented cook at a busy Midtown Manhattan restaurant who is in love with waitress Julia (Mara), who is pregnant with his child. The tension builds and erupts when money is discovered stolen from the cash register, and the blame is placed on Pedro. But who really stole the money?

Mexican filmmaker Ruizpalacios adapts Arnold Wesker's 1957 play "The Kitchen" into a drama about social and financial inequalities in contemporary America. It also humanizes the faceless workers who power the service industry and delivers an explosive climax. Reviews from the Berlinale, where the film premiered in competition, praised Ruizpalacios' drama.

For Ruizpalacios, whose feature debut, “Güeros,” won the Berlinale’s Best Debut Film award nearly a decade ago, “La Cocina” is essentially anti-food porn. “I wanted to show the other side of the food industry, where efficiency is more important than the quality of the food. It’s a metaphor for corporate capitalism,” he told Variety in February.