‘Público’ offers an exclusive clip of ‘The Kitchen’, a portrait of the dehumanization of work

The Mexican Alonso Ruizpalacios dedicates his new film, The kitchento the dehumanization of work. Shot in black and white, with Raúl Briones, Anna Días and Rooney Mara in the lead roles, the film premiered at the Berlin Festival, screened at Seminci and won the Audience Award at the Morelia Festival.

Inspired by Arnold Wesker’s play, the film takes place in The Grill, a tourist restaurant in New York that serves thousands of customers every Friday. Now money has disappeared from the till and all the workers are being questioned. Most of them are illegal immigrants and they fight to defend their work.

It is a story that shows how routine kills some hopes and illusions, a portrait of the dehumanization of work and also a story of impossible love. “Borders play an important role in this film: physical, spiritual and social boundaries. The vertical structure of the kitchen is the perfect setting to explore what underlies a divided society trapped in the same living space,” he says. the director.

From that perspective, this restaurant becomes a wonderful metaphor for the modern world and its inequalities. “The ‘line’ where the cooks place the food so that the waitresses can take it to the dining room becomes a palpable reminder of these borders. It is also the line that separates Pedro and Julia. The impossible love story between Pedro and Julia It feels like a romantic comedy in reverse.”

In some way, it is through these characters that the filmmaker reflects the relationship between Mexico and the United States, “stuck together, and separated forever.” As Justo Sierra said: Shame about Mexico… so far from God, so close to the United States“.