Abel, a nine-year-old boy, has stopped talking since his father left home. One morning he starts to speak again, and appears to believe that he is the head of the family. As he oversees his siblings' homework and interrogates his sister's new boyfriend, no one dares to challenge this miracle. One day a man shows up at the door: his father.
Abel is a touching mix of comedy and tragedy, an exploration of the challenging social issue facing Mexican families, where paternal absenteeism is increasingly the norm as men leave their families behind to earn a better wage in the United States. Diego Luna and Gael García Bernal in 2005, together with producer Pablo Cruz, founded a film & TV production company in Mexico City focusing on projects grown in Latin America. Abel is one of those projects.