14/03/2024 - Benito Zambrano presents an interesting dramatic thriller about the tragedy of immigration with the aim of reaching the general public

Ibrahim is an African immigrant who came to Spain from his native Guinea a few years ago. Now his life and family are in Madrid, where he works as a bricklayer and is expecting a child with his wife. One day, unexpectedly, the police arrest him to deport him back to his country, as he does not have a residence permit. From there, he will begin an odyssey to try to return to Spain with his family. He will end up having to jump the Melilla fence, something that many people never manage to do and many others die in the attempt. This is the story of Jumping the Fence [+see also:
trailer
film profile], the new film by Benito Zambrano, written by Flora González Villanueva and presented in the Official Section out of competition at the Malaga Film Festival.

Zambrano tells the tragedy behind each migrant who tries to jump the Melilla fence in a film that is classic in its form, with a clearly realistic and social intention, a kind of dramatic thriller without artifice. With a desire to bring this story to the general public (something that also connects it with Matteo Garrone's recent Io Capitano [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile]), it delves into the life stories of the characters, their dramas, fears and hopes. This is precisely one of the film's great virtues, in the humanity and lack of sensationalism with which the director tries to reflect the tragedy of immigration. From this intention to put the human story at the centre, the film manages to reflect the situation of vulnerability and helplessness in which many immigrants find themselves. And how the system and its institutions completely dehumanise these human tragedies, how crimes against human rights are committed day after day with the protection of the law and the complicity of society, the indifference with which we live with the violence and death of others, how we look the other way while the tragedy does not affect our sphere of interest. In doing so, the film raises interesting discussions about the injustice of this drama, and that the fact that something is legal does not necessarily mean that it is just and that nothing should be done to change it.

Although at times it lacks a certain visual and emotional power, it is a well-resolved film in terms of directing and acting. It manages to arrive to a powerful final scene where the whole background of the film is contained: terror, desperation, the need to hold on to something, to have hope, to be willing to risk your life because you have already lost everything, the fear of dying and at the same time being already dead if you do not attempt that jump.

"To those who died on the journey. To those who arrived. To those who welcomed them with open arms," reads the film's end credits by way of a dedication. Jumping the Fence is a simple and honest film, a social and political film that achieves what it sets out to do: reach the general public without edifying pretensions or grand discourses. A film that engages with the present, achieving a kind of mirror of what we are today as a society.

Jumping the Fence is a co-production between Spain and France by the companies Cine365Films, Cine365 Films Canarias AIE, Castelao Producciones, Virtual Contenidos and Noodles Productions, with international sales managed by Filmax.

(Translated from Spanish by Vicky York)