Though heavily informed by contemporary issues of immigration and prejudice, Mikel Rueda’s bittersweet coming-of-age drama Hidden Away succeeds first and foremost as a tender tribute to the sometimes tumultuous bonds of youth – romantic and otherwise. A work brimming with mesmeric mood, Rueda draws conflict from a range of social and legal complications that both impede and embolden the intimate connections of his characters, displaying an astute awareness of the often touchingly indirect ways in which hesitant male teens communicate and express affection. Shot with a dreamy blue-green palette that enriches the realist drama with compassionate psychological weight, the film creates a profoundly layered, quietly absorbing reality for these young men that seems to expand well beyond the periphery of the frame or the focus of the narrative.