We live in a society that insists that if you work hard, you can achieve the goals you set for yourself. But “Problemista,” the first feature film from writer and comedian Julio Torres, now playing in theaters worldwide, raises the question: is hard work always enough? Based on Torres’s own immigrant experience, the film follows Alejandro, an aspiring toy designer from El Salvador struggling to make his dreams come true in New York City, who is lost. job and desperately need a sponsor to stay in the United States. Even after taking a gig as a freelance assistant to an erratic art critic named Elizabeth (played by Tilda Swinton), Alejandro (played by Torres) finds himself in one of the nightmare mazes and the harshest of American bureaucracy – the US immigration system.
“I think I’ve always been fascinated by the soullessness and isolation of bureaucracy, and I think different people experience that differently,” Torres told PS. “This is how I experienced it. But the term ‘American dream’ wasn’t really a term I had in mind when writing this. I just wrote something that I felt was true and felt honest – emotionally honest.”
Before his days writing “Saturday Night Live,” HBO’s first comedy special “My Favorite Shapes” and writing and starring in HBO’s “Los Espookys,” Torres, like the title character, in his film, went through his own nightmarish immigration journey. He left his native El Salvador and moved to New York to pursue his dream of becoming a filmmaker and enrolled in The New School, where he studied film writing. As an international student without a work visa, Torres had to work on campus or at irregular, low-paying odd jobs he found on Craig’s List. The restrictions that came with what he often called “invisible bureaucratic barriers in the US immigration system” left him feeling hopeless and isolated.
But Torres wants to make something clear to viewers — he didn’t create this film to fill a diversity quota or even with the intention of creating a film that represents the experience of a Chinese immigrant. America (a story we don’t often, if ever, see). He created this film simply to reflect his own experiences.
“That’s what happens when different kinds of people get involved in filmmaking; you get to hear all kinds of different stories,” he said. “It’s not like I set out and think, ‘What’s a list of interesting topics?’ This is just something that’s very close to my heart, and to be honest, I didn’t think about whether the movie would be popular or understandable. I just did it and felt it could go either way. “
It’s the same approach that many other Latin actors, writers and storytellers are trying to take. They don’t want to take on roles or make movies just for the sake of representation. Writing movies, shows, or taking on roles marketed as “Latine” projects often comes with the pressure to represent an entire community and the risk of coming across as inauthentic. Today, Latino actors and storytellers are more interested in creating art that reflects or speaks to their real-life experiences in the hope that it will resonate with audiences – regardless of origin. their body.
“It’s not just aesthetically diverse — it’s not just poster-like,” Torres said. “Just diversity of thoughts. Diversity of opinions. Diversity of experiences. Diversity of styles too, because the film has the longest runtime or sometimes it still feels like it’s all the same. And that’s because we’re following the same rules. But different places in the world tell stories in different ways and so I’ve really been reflecting on that a lot.
As someone who has experienced what it means to work hard but still struggle because of a broken system, Torres deeply relates and empathizes with the frustrations of being an immigrant living in the United States. If audiences take anything away from the film, he hopes it will encourage both curiosity and empathy for those in similar situations to Alejandro.
“Sometimes I feel like I made the movie, and now people should open it up like a little treasure chest and take whatever they like. And if they don’t like something, they can go ahead and close the treasure chest,” he said. “But if I can be an advocate for empathy and encourage people to look at the people around them and try to think about their perspective – not only do they understand some context about how other people come from somewhere, but it will make life a little less lonely.”
