Ulises ya no vive aquí
2015 · 30m · España
Directed by Juan Carlos García-Sampedro
Genres: documentary
Tones: contemplative
At the turn of the century Spain became Europe's main receiver of immigration, especially from Latin America, before the 2008 crisis reversed the flow. The documentary follows the human stories behind the statistics, including journeys to Ecuador, Colombia, and Venezuela.
Picked by Margot
The scouts
García-Sampedro could've turned this into another tear-jerking migration narrative, but instead he lets the contradiction breathe—building a film about people going backward through a forward-looking continent. The real subversion is how quietly he refuses to make it tragic.
A formally assured essay that knows exactly where it sits in the documentary tradition—part Marker, part social portraiture—using the reversal of migration flows as its architectural spine, and the 30-minute form to contain what could've been sprawling into something elegantly resolved.
The decision to follow the *return* journey instead of the arrival is what makes this work; it reframes the entire immigrant narrative and forces you to reconsider what 'home' footage actually means when shot from the perspective of someone going backward.