What We Leave Behind

What we Leave Behind was well-received at its world premiere at Austin SXSW Film Festival. It is a beautiful intimate portrait by a granddaughter, Iliana Sosa, of her elderly grandfather. But it is more. It is an examination of man aging with dignity in a third world country far away from most of his family. He builds a house so that his family will have a place to come home to. Even more it is a film about migration as his children have migrated away from his home in rural Mexico to the United States and as he seeks to remain connected to them even though they have departed and made new lives for themselves far from his home. He provides a link and a bridge to where they came from and what they have lost as they have moved on to what they clearly believe to be a better place. The film is fascinating, personal and thought-provoking and tries to go below the surface of the issue of immigration along the U. S.- Mexico and find the human side of what has so often become a contentious hot button political issue.