Almacenados

If you don't listen to the between the lines you'll hate it . Very intelligent film amusing and philosophical great artists and specially a genius director I'm getting in love with Latin films.

"Almacenados", basically translating to "In Storage", is a deceptively simple story with two characters, pretty much a single location and a short logline: young Nin lands a job as the caretaker of a warehouse on a Monday and must learn the ropes from the lone, veteran employee Mr. Lino before he retires on Friday. In this simplicity lies an unexpectedly great story with some heavy thematic depth, think "Locke" or "My Dinner with Andre" for comparison.

For starters, Lino is EXTREMELY by-the-book, while Nin is very inquisitive, specially considering the mystery of the job. What is stored in the facility? How often do shipments come in? How are the shipments unloaded? When in the mood, Lino answers Nin's questions and fires back with a few of his own (just what kind of name IS "Nin"?). Slowly, their relationship starts to build... and then ebb, as they find out the small lies they told each other.

The real depth of the film is not really in dealing with the act of lying to others, but rather the lying to oneself. As Nin and Lino reveal more about their lives, the clearer it becomes that the lies they tell are not for the other, in lying they expect to make the realness of their own reality, well... less real. Lies are also at the center of the most heartwarming moments of the film, so the film cleverly avoids making things too clean-cut.

Just as their simple lives allow both Nin and Lino learn from each other, so does this simple story allow us to learn about unexpected relationships, lies and most importantly, what our work can be in this often-empty warehouse that is modern life.

I had just watched "I am no longer here" another Latin film directed by Fernando Frías, and I was very curious to see others. I came about this movie. With only two actors and one setting, there is not much you can focus on other than miserable job both Nin and Senior Leno are accustom too. Personally I am not one to be philosophical or Symbolic about movies, but I think this film was deep and rich in hidden meanings about the workplace, self ignorance and Truth. When you don't think about what your watching, this movie can become boring.

Besides the meaningless jobs and how much lies we gather to make our own version of reality because the society we live in, is all about how great the company's culture is, or how great our work is, when in reality we are mostly often worker bees, we are not unique, in the aspect of doing something that can't be done by the majority. The monotonous jobs and repetitive script which predicts our lives and we think all this have a meaning, all these years we did something but it's.. just a way to pay the bills, nothing more attached to it. Another subject that it tackled was, that older generations can't really accept the ways of younger generations, it's a foreign concept for them but it doesn't mean that we just discard them, we still have to help them, understand that they are wired like that, we can help them in our own way. It's a sad story, depicting the state of the world, built on lies we ourselves crafted.

My wife I found this movie by chance on Netflix and after we checked it had a good score at IMDB, we decided to give it a chance.

Although the movie is slow paced, the cleaver dynamics between the two main characters and the very good photography makes it a very enjoyable experience. It's at the same time unpretentious and witty.

I truly recommend this movie!