We live in a society that insists that if you work hard, you can probably achieve the goals you set for yourself. But “Problemista,” the debut feature film from writer and actor Julio Torres, now in theaters around the world, asks the question: Is hard work always enough? Loosely based on Torres’ immigration experience, the film follows Alejandro, an aspiring toy designer from El Salvador who struggles to make his dream a reality in New York, loses his job and desperately needs to find a sponsor to stay in the United States. Even after accepting a position as a freelance assistant to an erratic art critic named Elizabeth (played by Tilda Swinton), Alejandro (played by Torres) finds himself in one of bureaucracy’s most relentless and nightmarish mazes American: the American immigration system.
“I think I’ve always been fascinated by how soulless and isolating bureaucracy can be, and I think different people experience that differently,” Torres told PS. “That’s how I experienced it. But the term ‘American dream’ wasn’t really a term I was thinking of when writing this. I just wrote something that I thought was true and that felt honest to me – emotionally honest.”
Before writing sketches for “Saturday Night Live,” landing his first HBO comedy special “My Favorite Shapes,” and writing and starring in HBO’s “Los Espookys,” Torres, as the protagonist in his film , experienced her 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 at the New School, where he studied film writing. As an international student without a work visa, Torres relied on on-campus jobs or casual, low-paying odd jobs he found on Craig’s List. The limitations of what he often calls the “invisible bureaucratic guardrails within the U.S. immigration system” left him desperate and isolated.
But Torres wants something to be 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 Central American immigrant (a narrative that we don’t do it often, if ever, see). He created this film simply to reflect his own experiences.
“That’s kind of what happens when different types of people make films; you hear all these different types of stories,” he says. “It’s not like I started thinking, ‘What is a list of interesting topics?’ » It’s just something very close to me, and honestly, I didn’t think about how universal the film would be, or not, I just made it and felt like it could go either way. . But people seem to connect with it. “
It’s a similar approach that many other Latin actors, writers and storytellers have tried to take. They don’t want to take on roles or create films for the sake of representation. Writing films or shows or taking on roles marketed as “Latin” projects often comes with the pressure of representing an entire community and the risk of coming across as inauthentic. These days, Latino actors and storytellers are more interested in creating art that reflects or speaks to their real-life experiences, in hopes that it resonates with audiences, regardless of their origin.
“Not just aesthetically, not just on the poster,” says Torres. “Just a diversity of thought. A diversity of opinions. A diversity of experiences. A diversity of styles too, because films for a very long time or sometimes still feel like they’re all the same. And that’s because we play by the same rules. But different parts of the world tell stories in different ways and so I’ve been thinking a lot about this I feel like this movie is so full of things and it’s maybe. be because it is a Latin American and Central American sensibility.
As someone who has experienced what it means to work hard and yet hit a wall because of a broken system, Torres is deeply concerned and sympathetic to the frustration that comes with being an immigrant living in the United States. If audiences take anything away from the film, they hope it will encourage both curiosity and empathy toward people in situations similar to Alejandro’s.
“Sometimes I feel like I made the movie, and now people should open it up like a little treasure chest and take what they want. And if they don’t like something, they can close the treasure chest,” he says. “But if I can be a drop in the ocean by just advocating for empathy and encouraging people to look at those around them and try to think about their perspective, not only would they get some context as to where others come from, but but it would help make life a little less lonely.”
