Tilda Swinton plays the boss from hell in this absurdist satire of US immigration policy and the New York art scene from A24 and breakout multi-hyphenate Julio Torres.

Childlike dreamer Alejandro (Torres) arrives in the Big Apple from El Salvador with one goal: to make toys for Hasbro. Instead – when not battling demeaning immigration dictates or calling back home to his mother (Catalina Saavedra, The Maid, MIFF 2009) – he ends up in the employ of the chaotic, irrational Elizabeth (Swinton), an erstwhile art critic obsessed with boosting the creative legacy of her cryogenically frozen husband (RZA).

Narrated by Isabella Rossellini, Problemista explodes onto the screen with a dizzying array of quirks: government red tape is depicted as a labyrinthine maze, people with expired visas vanish into the ether and Craigslist is the product of a genie from a parallel dimension. With unabashedly Kaufman-esque wit, the debut feature from rising cult star Torres (a former SNL writer and co-creator of HBO’s Los Espookys) marries magic-realist whimsy and genuine silliness with sardonic yet scathing critiques of the gig economy, the treatment of migrants and the perversion of the American Dream.

“Within Problemista is a heartfelt core conveying something profoundly human. It’s a marvelous mixture of surrealism and social satire.” – The Atlantic

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