Review Undocumented, a clear movie about dignity

Journalist Fernando (Christian de la Cortina) is beaten while trying to cross the U.S.-Mexico border. In Mexico, he receives death threats and is forced to flee. From the sunny light of Mexico, he ends up in the snow of Vermont. Without legal status or papers, he finds illegal work on a farm: but here, besides working on a farm, he does not discover the Eldorado he feared. In fact, the workers' conditions are worse than those in Mexico.

It is strange that in this day and age a state cannot guarantee sufficient working conditions for everyone: if artificial intelligence is pushing towards the automation of processes, the same cannot be said of the automation of dignity that a state should guarantee.

The film Undocumented - directed by de la Cortina himself - proposes such a dualism, which is now omnipresent in the journey of migrants, who are unable to understand that the well-being they yearn for is inferior to the neglected conditions of their origin. If shoveling cow dung is now Fernando's job, the sense of strangeness to this place is no less: and if a mistake leads to the loss of thousands of gallons of milk, the insults of the mistress - a cynical Kim Huffman - are the measure of her immigrant honor. 

Master-Servant Dualism in the Film Undocumented

The film by de la Cortina - former director of Generation Wolf, as well as a Brooklynperformer - succeeds in transcending the stereotypes of the master-servant dualism to tell how much this chain, which we thought was broken, grips the living flesh of our days. Is it right to emigrate for a worse life? Is it right to give up one's dreams of prosperity? Then there is the torture that Fernando and his cousin have to endure: battery electrodes are placed on their naked bodies and their skin is burned with electric shocks.

The only solution is to flee to Canada, but the new El Dorado is not for everyone. If 30 million people are considered slaves in the new millennium, it is also the fault of our blindness, which confuses work with disrespect. And Undocumented shines a bright light on this generational condition.