25. April 2024
Bernhard Hetzenauer
Those
Next to Us
Jury statement: We see roads, bends, bridges, an endless
stream of lorries and cars, a river, a trailer, a car park – stages of an illegal escape in long static shots. From off-screen
we hear the voice of German Lopez Rosales, a young man from Mexico. German is trying to enter the USA illegally with the help
of smugglers.
We learn how he gets into a boat, crosses the border river, has to hide
in a caravan and is finally forced into a boiling hot lorry. In the end, many people are dead, including his friend and a
family of five with a baby. Emotional closeness meets visual distance. The harrowing off-screen narration takes us inside
the lorry, into the caravan, onto the boat – letting us imagine what the images do not show: The often horrific experience
of illegal migrants fleeing. The film cleverly combines its external and internal perspectives. It impressively and sensitively
succeeds in portraying the dehumanisation that people on the run experience worldwide – including “next to us”.
