Away

Sergio went to Utrecht with his family; they had travelled for a football match. On the day they are to leave he has a panic attack at the airport. He does not board. He tells his family nothing, turns off his phone and stays in Holland. He has no money, no language and nowhere to stay. He tries to find work and meets other people working outside the law. A young man helps him. Sergio does not describe the life he left and nobody asks. Staying was not a decision, but not going back turns into one. Gerard Oms directs; it is his first feature. Mario Casas plays Sergio; David Verdaguer, Ilyass El Ouahdani and Jetty Mathurin are in the cast. It is a Spanish production and its Catalan title is Molt lluny. The film screened at the Málaga Film Festival on 16 March 2025 and reached Spanish cinemas on 11 April 2025. It took two prizes at Málaga; Mario Casas was named best actor and the film won the critics' jury award. Its ground is the 2008 crisis; the subject is precarity, racism and class. The narrative carries a question of identity too; Sergio is reckoning with his own sexuality and could not do that where he came from. The film puts the places where migrant workers work at its centre. The narrative does not offer the escape as a liberation; Sergio's situation does not improve. Its limit is pace; the narrative is slow, there is little event, and the ending unresolved. Who it is for: viewers who like Spanish independent cinema and narratives of identity. Who it is not for: it is slow, sombre, and the ending open.