Almacenados

I watched this as part of TIFF 2016 (Transilvania International Film Festival) and it was on my extended list of movies I should check out, but boy - what I was about to miss! The whole story is taking place in a Mexican warehouse and it's focusing on two characters. We've got the senior employee, who's been in charge of the warehouse for his entire life basically and he's been strictly following the rules - absurd or not - for this whole time. Aaand we get the newcomer, the young spirited guy who's ready to take on a new job and has no more than 5 days to learn all he needs to know. The whole movie is based on the hours the two characters spend together, hours full of lessons for both sides. It had its funny moments when the whole crowd was laughing and it had its moments of wisdom that left the cinema hall in silence. I had no idea who the characters are nor who directed the movie, but they all did a wonderful job. I even rated the movie with the highest score for TIFF People's Choice Award. If you get the chance to watch this movie, do it. It's better than a short description can tell.

Both characters are brought together by life. Both have age and personality differences. At first, this is what one leads to believe that they won't be able to make it together. The young guy may appear to have aspirations and is inquisitive at first, something contrary to the older guy. By end of the movie, it makes the young guy change his point of view and this seems to,at first, disappoint the older gentleman, but later is okay with it. This movie is correctly tagged on Netflix partly as dramedy and deadpan. This movie was written by the same writer from the movie The Platform, another great movie.

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!

"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.

Jobs available for smart and young people are as meaningless as waiting endlessly for something pointless. This hit close to my heart because I'm freshly graduated from university and unemployed :( initially I thought, why does Nin doesn't do something productive in this HUGE warehouse? he could rent the place, maybe take an online course in the meantime, play some tunes, draw, study and so much more but... I guess that wasn't the point. This movie is not about making the best of the circumstances, it's more about resignation, which is very sad, but sometimes that's how life feels. It's a huge critique towards capitalism but at the same time it's very minimalist and soft. Beautiful.