What we Leave Behind was well-received at its world premiere at Austin SXSW Film Festival. It is a beautiful intimate portrait by a granddaughter, Iliana Sosa, of her elderly grandfather. But it is more. It is an examination of man aging with dignity in a third world country far away from most of his family. He builds a house so that his family will have a place to come home to. Even more it is a film about migration as his children have migrated away from his home in rural Mexico to the United States and as he seeks to remain connected to them even though they have departed and made new lives for themselves far from his home. He provides a link and a bridge to where they came from and what they have lost as they have moved on to what they clearly believe to be a better place. The film is fascinating, personal and thought-provoking and tries to go below the surface of the issue of immigration along the U. S.- Mexico and find the human side of what has so often become a contentious hot button political issue.
What We Leave Behind
2022
Documentary
What We Leave Behind
2022
Documentary
100% - Critics
7.9Plot summary
At the age of 89, Julián takes one last bus ride to El Paso, Texas, to visit his daughters and their children - a lengthy trip he has made without fail every month for decades. After returning to rural Mexico, he quietly starts building a house in the empty lot next to his home. In the absence of his physical visits, can this new house bridge the distance between his loved ones? Over several years, director Iliana Sosa films her grandfather's work, gently sifting through Julián's previously unspoken memories brought up by the construction project and revealing both the daily pragmatism and poetry of his life. WHAT WE LEAVE BEHIND unfolds as a love letter to her grandfather, as well as an intimate and insightful exploration of Iliana's own relationship with him and his homeland.
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