'The jump': the horror of immigration is only felt at the end

It took time for cinema to deal with an everyday tragedy that in some cases, not many, has a happy ending, with people who make their very expensive dream come true, threatened by unbearably carnal nightmares, of settling in Europe and surviving (or living in the most lucky ones) in it. The majority come from impoverished Africa and do so in deplorable conditions, risking not only their skin, but in some cases also that of their children and babies. And it is very possible that upon reaching the alleged heaven they will be forced to travel back to the hell from which they tried to escape.

You have to be a beast not to feel moved by the incessant sight of the risky travelers in the canoes, to observe the carnage that took place on the fences of Melilla, to witness the hope or desolation of those who have crossed the longed-for line after a strenuous road. The viewers of this theme are emotionally won from the beginning. Another story is that they were willing to make personal sacrifices to try to help those who arrived at port. But we are all willing to be moved. You can make excellent cinema with plots that are sadly fashionable. Italian director Matteo Garrone did it remarkably well, with some eye-watering moments in

I Captain.

Benito Zambrano does not achieve that effect on me (although the music plays frequently) with his conscientious chronicle of some immigrant who arrived, was returned, insisted on returning trying to jump over those wire walls that became a deadly mousetrap.

I appreciate being emotionally manipulated in the movies as long as they do it with intelligence and art. I am willing to believe everything if that connects with my emotion, with the sensations that great cinema transmits. But speech full of good intentions and expressed in an underlined or simplistic way does not work for me. Here the victims are charming, they are not overly nuanced and the executioners who harass them, from the arrogant and contemptuous police to the Moroccans who chase and corner them in the forests, are too basic, too cruel villains. Reality is probably like this or worse, but it is essential that you find good and evil, or the mixture of both, credible. It all depends on the way it is told, whether it fascinates or convinces you, whether the feelings seem real to you.

The protagonist works as a hard worker in Spain. He is not regularized. They detain him in a listless and contemptuous control. His hitherto happy girlfriend is pregnant. Their lives have a present and he seems to have a future. Everything breaks with his deportation. And there begins the definitive hell, after having previously overcome complicated barriers. A homosexual cousin of the girl, protective and generous of her, proposes to marry her seeking her legalization. The distraught and separated couple only ever manages to communicate over the phone. He survives as best he can in the mountains, with multiple people who aspire to enter Spain at any price. All supportive, beaten and determined.

Until a certain moment, near the end, I followed the sad story without feeling cold or hot, finding it as predictable as it was bearable. But in the ending, trying something as desperate as climbing the fences, everything seems truthful and terrible to me. Things happen to me in my eyes and in my heart. It's a shame it takes so long for the horror to arrive. The above is easy and predictable to me.

The jump

Director:

Benito Zambrano.

Performers:

Moussa Sylla, Edith Martínez Val, Nansi Nsue, Ali Useni, Eric Nantchouang. 

Genre:

drama. Spain, 2024.

Duration:

96 minutes.

Premiere: April 12.

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