Imagine you are an Ecuadorian writer/director living in a country where the film industry and culture is practically non-existent. Now imagine one of your scripts becomes very popular and, as hype starts to grow, there's an actual chance that the movie is going to get made (and with a handsome budget, at that). Naturally, you'll be inclined to make the greatest movie you can and to include all the ideas that you've always wanted to get across to a large audience but never before had the opportunity to do so.
This is both the blessing and the curse of "Prometeo Deportado", a clever look into one of the most common social phenomena in Ecuador and third-world countries in general: migration. The movie takes place in an airport of an undisclosed European country where some Ecuadorian travelers are forced to live in a waiting room for no apparent reason until the authorities decide what to do with them, and it's in this unlikely environment where we're introduced to the colorful characters that populate this story. Each migrant represents a different segment of the Ecuadorian demographic, whether it's the magician looking to expand his horizons, the model that denies her nationality or the writer who once showed great promise but is now disappointed with his life and his country, among many others.
As the title of this review implies, the beauty of the story lies in the interactions that take place between the characters in this claustrophobic setting, which range from sharing a meal to trying to understand the reason of their imprisonment and figuring out what to do after they get out, whenever that may be. However, the messiness comes with the way in which the story is executed, since it looks like director Fernando Mieles had too many things to say and too little time to express those things in a coherent way, and so the movie has shades of comedy, tragedy, documentary, drama, magic realism and art-house cinema but none of these genres are ever fully realized in the too-short 110 minutes of the film.
All of this, coupled with bad performances by some of the supporting cast make this feel like a missed opportunity, but if you are even slightly interested in the migration issue or are looking for a fresh and touching perspective of the reality faced in third world countries, this is still a movie worth watching.
