New Mexico is a land of milagros, visions and faith. Tortilla Heaven is a comedy about milagros, visions and faith. Sometimes the film pushes the envelope. It is often irreverent -- but reverently so. Because after all the fun and havoc and laughter, at the end of the day, Tortilla Heaven is really about community, redemption, transformation and faith.
In the film, the community starts out with everyone separate. The miracle, the face of Christ, appears to one person .. the non-believer, the guy who's not in church but at home cooking, trying to realize his own dream that everyone will come and taste his food. But when the tortilla miraculously burns, the community is soon torn apart as everyone tries to use the miracle for himself. Tortilla Heaven becomes Tortilla Hell. At this point, our hero, who is Everyman, is devastated at the hell he has created and the havoc he has wreaked. He goes to the Mountain and rebukes God: "Where are you? Why have you abandoned us?" But God hasn't abandoned anyone. God is found in the spark of divinity in the human heart. When our hero realizes this, he is transformed. He can now create his own miracle: by standing for his community he transforms it from the kind of community we all find ourselves in to the kind that we choose.
Tortilla Heaven, The Ten Commandments, Jesus Christ Superstar