Julio Torres’s “Problemista” Is Inspired By His Own Story

We reside in a society that insists should you work onerous, you’ll be able to in all probability obtain the objectives you have set for your self. However “Problemista,” the primary characteristic movie by author and comic Julio Torres, which is now in theaters worldwide, poses the query: is working onerous at all times sufficient? Loosely based mostly off of Torres’s personal immigration expertise, the movie follows Alejandro, an aspiring toy designer from El Salvador struggling to make his dream a actuality in New York Metropolis who loses his job and desperately must safe a sponsor to remain within the States. Even after taking a contract assistant gig with an erratic artwork critic named Elizabeth (performed by Tilda Swinton), Alejandro (performed by Torres) finds himself in one of the relentless and nightmarish mazes of American paperwork — the US immigration system.

“I feel that I’ve at all times been fascinated with how soulless and the way isolating paperwork may be, and I feel totally different folks expertise that in another way,” Torres tells PS. “That is the way in which through which I skilled it. However the time period ‘American dream’ wasn’t actually a time period I used to be fascinated with when penning this. I simply wrote one thing that I felt was true and that felt sincere — emotionally sincere.”

Earlier than his days writing “Saturday Evening Stay” skits, touchdown his first HBO standup comedy particular “My Favourite Shapes,” and writing and starring in HBO’s “Los Espookys,” Torres, like his movie’s protagonist, went by way of his personal nightmarish immigration journey. He left his native nation of El Salvador and moved to New York to pursue his desires of being a filmmaker and enrolled in The New College, the place he studied movie writing. As a world scholar with no work visa, Torres relied on on-campus jobs or occasional, low-paying odd jobs he’d discover on Craig’s Listing. The constraints that got here with what he usually refers to because the “invisible paperwork guardrails throughout the US immigration system” left him feeling hopeless and remoted.

However Torres desires to make one thing clear to viewers — he did not create this movie to fill a range quota and even with the intention of making a movie that represented the expertise of a Central American immigrant (a story we do not usually, if ever, see). He created this movie to easily mirror his personal experiences.

“It is type of what occurs when totally different sorts of individuals get to make motion pictures; you get to listen to all these totally different sorts of tales,” he says. “It isn’t like I set out and considered, ‘What’s an inventory of attention-grabbing subjects?’ That is simply one thing very near me, and I actually actually was not fascinated with how common or relatable or not relatable the film could be. I simply made it and felt it might go both approach. However folks appear to be connecting with it.”

It is a comparable method many different Latine actors, writers, and storytellers have been making an attempt to take. They do not wish to tackle roles or create movies for the sake of illustration. Writing movies or exhibits or taking up roles marketed as “Latine” initiatives usually comes with the strain to symbolize a whole neighborhood and the chance of coming off as inauthentic. As of late, Latine actors and storytellers are extra excited by creating artwork that mirrors or speaks to their real-life experiences, with the hope that it resonates with audiences — no matter their background.

“Not simply range like cosmetically — not similar to for the poster,” Torres says. “Simply range of thought. Variety of opinion. Variety of expertise. Variety of kinds, too, as a result of motion pictures for the longest time or typically nonetheless really feel like they’re all the identical. And it is as a result of we’re abiding by the identical guidelines. However totally different elements of the world inform tales in several methods and so I’ve really been reflecting lots about that . . . I really feel like this film is so filled with stuff and it is perhaps as a result of that is a Latin American/Central American sensibility.”

As somebody who has skilled what it means to work onerous and nonetheless hit a wall due to a damaged system, Torres deeply pertains to and empathizes with the frustration that comes with being an immigrant dwelling within the States. If audiences take something away from the movie, he hopes it encourages each curiosity and empathy for folk in comparable conditions to Alejandro.

“Generally I really feel like I made the film, and now folks ought to open it like a bit of treasure chest and take no matter they like. And if they do not like something, they will go forward and shut the treasure chest,” he says. “But when I could be a drop within the bucket of simply advocating for empathy and inspiring folks to take a look at these round them and take a look at to consider their perspective — not solely would they acquire some context when it comes to the place different persons are coming from, however it might assist make life really feel rather less lonely.”