Accidental Expat Film Review

Star rating: 5/5

Writer: Alan Barr

Director: Alan Barr

Starring: Edgar de Santiago, Enrique Arreola and Fatima Favela

Accidental Expat is a brilliant, warm story of a young life upended by politics of the worst kind, and the road to re-building materially, spiritually and emotionally.

We meet Raymond, a Mexican-American in his late 20s, as he is about to be deported from the USA to Mexico- the country of his heritage, but which he does not know much about. With his mother and brother back in the US, Raymond goes to his father’s house. They haven’t met since Raymond left as a baby, so it is a challenging circumstance to say the least. He seems to set the tone for Raymond, telling him they have ‘something in common’ because they ‘both fucked up’, and what follows is a story of self-discovery in the face of deep injustice.

Accidental Expat showcases the full range of feelings that flood in when being uprooted, from fear, to curiosity, to frustration, to excitement. Edgar de Santiago’s performance as Raymond is deep and intentional, while we get a fantastically raw, heart-in-hand performance from Enrique Arreola as Raymond’s father. They paint the complex picture of the story with a clearly in-depth knowledge of the material, almost reveling in the film’s high-quality, bi-lingual dialogue.

Technically the film solid, making use of a wide range of shots to convey the different types and layers of conversations Raymond experiences- with friends, a love interest, his father and even virtually with his mother and brother. They reflect both the intimacy of the situation and the enormity of it, the deep pain of it as much as the possibilities it offers. The locations, which are a variety of places throughout Mexico City, are brilliantly chosen as they all bring an aspect if the story to life- Raymond’s father house where it seems he just half-lives, the call centre Raymond works at which is a demanding yet supportive environment, and the bars and small restaurants where, as he socialises, he can begin to truly experience his new reality, and discover parts of him that hadn’t come to light before.

‘I’m not broken’, Raymond tells his father in a moment of deep confrontation. Accidental Expat is a colourful, sweet exploration of how despite the odds being stuck against you, despite injustices, upheavals and circumstances caused simply by injustice, where the last thing we want to do is trust anybody, the only way to go on is to be completely open to what the future might hold. The essence of true survival, the key to not being broken, is to take every day as a new chance, to look at every old and every new pair of eyes we encounter with kindness, and perhaps, just perhaps, things might work out.