Warsaw, Poland, during the Cuban Missile Crisis, 1962. Josh Mansky, a troubled math genius and former US chess champion, is recruited to hold a dangerous public match against the Soviet champion, while playing the deadly game of espionage hidden in the darkest shadows of a hostile territory.
Living in East Los Angeles and working at a Japanese jazz bar, a young short-order cook faces deportation to Japan when his visa is denied. After what seems to be a connection with a Mexican Bakery worker turns into a misunderstanding, Shin experiences a side of Los Angeles invisible to his social circle of Japanese expats. Subdued and restrained, the film offers an unsentimental and personal portrait of living in between time zones and cultures in a city indicative of a world growing smaller.
