Upon entering – cinema newspaper

When a couple lands in New York Airport from Spain, the customs check turns into a debilitating nightmare.

Even if you have a clear conscience, customs control upon arrival in the United States is unnerving. Tight action for fingerprints and photos, especially for those silent officers, who barely look at you and never smile at all, tapping their keyboard.

When Diego (Alberto Aman) and Elena (Brona Cosi) arrive in New York from Spain en route to Miami, the customs mill is the beginning of a nightmare. Venezuelan Diego already seems to be expecting him. As she resignedly underwent the operation, he looked around nervously, jumping from one leg to the other.

Then there’s not the sincere “Welcome to the United States,” but the ominous “Follow me.” Deserted corridors lead them to deserted waiting areas. Without a word of explanation, they search their belongings, put them in a room, and endless interrogation begins.

Alejandro Rojas and Juan Sebastian Vasquez, jointly responsible for the script and directing, built their first film on simplicity and frankness. And this is precisely its strength. Most of the film, which won the FIPRESCI Prize at the Tallinn Film Festival, takes place in unsightly places. in real time. There’s no hint of aesthetics or soundtrack anywhere to distract the viewer from that white table and the increasingly troubled faces of Diego and Elena.

Everything is questionable. Their papers, their relationship, their past, his tone. What the two know, or think they know, about each other begins to waver increasingly. Her trust in him, his motives, and the sincerity of his love are especially tested.

In the short fifteen minutes that the film continues, the political and moral issues affecting their plight emerge almost automatically, but sometimes evaporate just as quickly. upon entry It is above all about the discursive power play that arises. About the slow collapse of certainties, which may not have been certain at all. Sweat appears on the eyebrow, and doubt creeps into someone’s voice.

The work is taking place in the corridor whose roads and excavations penetrate the interrogation room. A little later the light goes out and they have to look for another room. It’s such trivial details that intensify the nightmare the couple has fallen into.