With full red carpet fanfare — flashbulbs going off, video cameras rolling, bystanders asking bystanders “what film is this?” “what’s going on?” — The New York Latino International Film Festival opened last night at Union Square’s Regal Cinema. After waiting in line for a half hour, I was finally let in with some other press folks, including writer Maria Finn Dominguez , who is covering the festival for ABC New’s latino culture blog EXCLUSIVA. The film festival’s two Executive Directors, Calixto Chincilla and Elizabeth Gardner, introduced the festival, especially thanking their corporate sponsor, HBO . Then, the Time Warner Future Filmmaker award was given out by a company spokesman to two very impressive high school students, Anthony Limongi of Hell’s Kitchen, who learned his craft through the wonderful Downtown Community Television youth program, and Queen’s Daniel Sanchez, who learned his through the equally great Ghetto Film School in the Bronx. The two young men seemed wise and articulate beyond their years, and made very interesting speeches about their interpretations of what it means to be Latino. Then, HBO’s Lucina Marinez-Desir came up to the podium to present her company’s award to the short filmmaker Hugo Perez, whose script was selected several months ago to be produced and shown throughout the festival. Finally, the night’s premiere, SOLO DIOS SABE , began. The film, which took seven years to finish, is a visually lush exploration of love, fate, and religious belief that stars two of the most magnetic Latino actors I’ve ever seen onscreen, Mexican Diego Luna (one half of the now famed Y TU MAMA TAMBIEN pals) and Brazilian Alice Braga (niece of actress Sonia, who first came to international attention with her role as a bikini-clad girlfriend in CITY OF GOD.) Though fairly conventional and melodramatic, I found myself really falling for this film, the way one falls for the beautiful, popular girl who is nice to you. It’s so easy, and comforting, to just submit — to want the two beautiful people to fall in love, to want them to express soap operatic passion, to get those chills when they kiss for the first time. Both actors were appealing in different ways, more sexy than perfectly beautiful. Luna, his nose slightly crooked and lacking the symmetry of a chiseled face like, say, Brad Pitt, projects a boyish intensity that is captivating and seductive. And Braga, who does have a perfect figure and flowing, thick locks of hair, has a determined face and persona — an individualistic rock star-type energy. There were certainly missteps in the film — some fast-motion Mtv visuals that disrupted the flow of the story. However, the questions about fate versus will are universal ones that are sure to elicit thoughts, and the film is as easy to sink into as a hot tub, and no less pleasurable to experience.