Elena won the visa lottery. Or what is the same, a kind of pass to be able to reside legally in the United States. Elena, from Barcelona, ??and her boyfriend, Diego, a Venezuelan, bundle up their heads and decide to settle in Miami. They travel with a stopover in New York where they have arranged to meet a brother of Diego’s. The couple’s new life seems to have started on the right foot, but customs control detains them at the New York airport and subjects them to increasingly harsh and even cruel interrogation.
Alberto Ammann and Bruna Cusí give life to this couple who reconsiders many things, including their own relationship, during those difficult hours they spend at the border, in limbo, away from everything, even their phones, answering some questions that are not always easy and, at the same time, questioning themselves in the disturbing Upon Entry, a film by Alejandro Rojas and Juan Sebastián Vásquez that opens today in Spain.
Ammann and Cusí are joined in the cast by Laura Gómez and Ben Temple, who play ruthless border interrogators. “Upon Entry is a film with actors, a script, and directors, with very well-measured photography and excellent editing. It is a jewelery work, the result of a team that has gotten along very well and, above all, it is a film which is based on the personal stories of the directors, which makes it even more universal”, Ammann explains in an interview with La Vanguardia together with Cusí.
Racism underlies the entire length of the film that “talks about the question of privilege, the difference that there is if you travel as a European or if you are from a country like Venezuela or from others that are in a situation of conflict or poverty”, Cusi points out. Elena, as a Barcelonan, does not quite understand what this interrogation is about “because she is not used to it and defends her rights. She does not see it as normal that they treat her like this, on the other hand, Diego is already used to this type of situation and, in addition, he has an added , the fear of being deported, of being returned to his country,” adds the actress.
Ammann agrees that, perhaps because of what he has experienced, Diego’s character “is fearful, has problems coping with conflict and poor social skills.” And he adds that he can understand it in some way because the actor, who was born in Córdoba (Argentina), has been living in Spain for 19 years: “I left my country and I know what that part of the film is talking about. My father passed away in 2020 , but my mother is there the same as my cousins ??and my friends from adolescence. I left my country, I left my life there and started another one here. That is not easy”.
Another of the elements of Upon Entry is that “it is very scary, because the viewer does not know exactly what is happening” and also because of the setting “because airports are a non-place, a place where you can feel vulnerable. They are no man’s land and that is perfect for abuses of power”, adds Ammann, who won the silver Biznaga for best male performance at the last Malaga Festival for his role in this film.
The interrogation by US customs officials creates a defenseless situation for Diego and Elena because it is still psychological abuse that also brings to light some secrets that were kept hidden. “People have the right to keep our privacy, there are certain things that you do not have to share even with your partner. Although it is true that in this case there was certain information that should have been revealed before traveling,” says Cusí, who does not count more to avoid spoilers.
Upun Entry is as disturbing as it is intriguing and entertaining and “the viewers are going to have a good time, but also a bad time, although above all they are going to leave the cinema with a smile on their faces because they will have seen a good movie”, concludes Ammann, who invites also the public to go to the cinema “the week of the premiere, which is the most important, because many cinemas have already disappeared and for a film to go well and stay it is essential that the premiere work”.
