''Upon Entry'' is a 2022 Spanish

drama film In film and television, drama is a category or genre of narrative fiction (or semi-fiction) intended to be more serious than humorous in tone. Drama of this kind is usually qualified with additional terms that specify its particular super-g ...

directed by Alejandro Rojas and Juan Sebastián Vásquez (in their directorial debut feature). It stars

Alberto Ammann Alberto Ammann Rey (born 1978) is an Argentine actor. He has played various roles in films, television and theater, including the lead role in the Spanish film ''Cell 211'', which earned him a Goya Award for Best New Actor. He is also known f ...

and

Bruna Cusí Bruna Cusí Echaniz (born 9 September 1986) is a Spanish actress, winner of Goya Award for Best New Actress The Goya Award for Best New Actress ( es, Premio Goya a la mejor actriz revelación, links=no) is one of the Goya Awards, Spain's prin ...

alongside

Ben Temple Ben Temple (born 1969) is an American-born actor who has developed his career in Spain. Biography Ben Temple was born in 1969 in New York. After moving to Spain in 1991, he installed permanently in the country in 1999. In 2003, he married actress ...

and Laura Gómez.

Plot

The plot concerns about the unpleasant vetting and questioning procedures that the couple formed by Diego (Venezuelan urbanist) and Elena (a contemporary dancer from Barcelona) suffers at the Newark Airport upon moving from Barcelona to the United States to start off a new life.

Cast

Production

Written and directed by Alejandro Rojas and Juan Sebastián Vásquez, ''Upon Entry'' is based on the helmers' personal experiences as immigrants. The film is a Spanish co-production by Zabriskie Films, Basque Films, and Sygnatia, with the participation of

TV3 Channel 3 or TV 3 may refer to: Television *Canal 3 (Burkina Faso), a commercial television channel in Burkina Faso *Canal 3 (Guatemala), a commercial television channel in Guatemala *Channel 3 (Algeria), a public Algerian TV channel owned by EPTV ...

, and the support from , the Madrid regional administration, the

Basque Government The Basque Government ( eu, Eusko Jaurlaritza, es, Gobierno Vasco) is the governing body of the Basque Autonomous Community of Spain. The head of the Basque government is known as the ''Lehendakari''. The Lehendakari is appointed by the Basque P ...

and Creative Europe's MEDIA.

Release

''Upon Entry'' screened at the

Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival, or PÖFF ( et, Pimedate Ööde Filmifestival), is an annual film festival held since 1997 in Tallinn, the capital city of Estonia. PÖFF is the only festival in Northern Europe or the Baltic region with a FIA ...

(PÖFF) in November 2022. It also made it to the official selection of the

28th Kolkata International Film Festival The 28th Kolkata International Film Festival was held from 15th to 22nd December 2022 at Netaji Indoor Stadium, in Kolkata, India. The festival opened with 1973 film '' Abhimaan'', by Hrishikesh Mukherjee. 183 films including 130 feature films ...

. It was picked up by Charade and Anonymous Content ahead of its screening at the

South by Southwest South by Southwest, abbreviated as SXSW and colloquially referred to as South By, is an annual conglomeration of parallel film, interactive media, and music festivals and Convention (meeting), conferences organized jointly that take place in m ...

(SXSW) for its North-American premiere. It also received screenings at the

Málaga Film Festival The Málaga Film Festival, formerly Málaga Spanish Film Festival (FMCE), is an annual film festival held in Málaga, Spain. The festival was established to promote Spanish cinema and help disseminate information about Spanish films. Since 2017, ...

and

BAFICI The Buenos Aires International Festival of Independent Cinema (BAFICI, es, Buenos Aires Festival Internacional de Cine Independiente) is an international festival of independent films organized each year in the month of April, in the city of ...

. Distributed by Karma Films, it was released theatrically in Spain on 16 June 2023. Charade closed distribution deals in Italy (Exit Media), Japan (Sochiku), Portugal (Alambique), India (Pictureworks), Pictureworks in India,

CIS Cis or cis- may refer to: Places * Cis, Trentino, in Italy * In Poland: ** Cis, Świętokrzyskie Voivodeship, south-central ** Cis, Warmian-Masurian Voivodeship, north Math, science and biology * cis (mathematics) (cis(''θ'')), a trigonome ...

(Pionier), and France (Condor Distribution).

Reception

According to the American

review aggregation A review aggregator is a system that collects reviews of products and services (such as films, books, video games, software, hardware, and cars). This system stores the reviews and uses them for purposes such as supporting a website where users ...

website

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang ...

, ''Upon Entry'' has a 100% approval rating based on 7 reviews from critics, with an average rating of 8.3/10. Júlia Olmo of ''

Cineuropa The MEDIA sub-programme of Creative Europe or simply Creative Europe MEDIA (formerly The MEDIA Programme of the European Union) is designed to support the European film and audiovisual industries. Budget The goal of programmers is to increase the ...

'' assessed that despite the film seemingly touching towards its end upon the clichés it managed to steer clear of before, it "manages to be an enjoyable film", "to achieve its verisimilitude and to make us forget for a while" "that we are watching a fictional film". Jonathan Holland of ''

ScreenDaily ''Screen International'' is a British film magazine covering the international film business. It is published by Media Business Insight, a British B2B media company. The magazine is primarily aimed at those involved in the global film business. ...

'' considered that the film "plays out in that grey zone where legitimate questioning ends and the state torture manual begins", pointing out how generating "so much drama from what is basically 74 minutes of people talking across a table at one another is very clever film making indeed". Jordi Batlle Caminal of ''

Fotogramas ''Fotogramas'' is Spanish digital and print film magazine which has been in circulation since 1946. It is one of the early film magazines in Spain. History Founded in Barcelona, it was first published on 15 November 1946 by Antonio Nadal-Rodó a ...

'' rated the film 4 out of 5 stars, highlighting the entire cast as the best thing about the film.

Accolades

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References

{{authority control 2022 films 2022 drama films Spanish drama films 2020s Spanish films 2020s Spanish-language films 2020s English-language films 2020s Catalan-language films Films set in airports Films set in New York City Films about immigration to the United States 2022 directorial debut films