After an extremely successful premiere at SXSW in 2023, Julio Torres‘ debut feature film Problemista is now playing in theaters.
Torres, a former writer at Saturday Night Live and the creator of the HBO series Los Espookys, wrote, directed, and starred in the A24 surreal comedy film as Alejandro, an aspiring toy designer from El Salvador struggling to bring his unusual ideas to life in New York City. However, as time on his work visa runs out, a job assisting an eccentric widow of an artist (played by Hollywood royalty Tilda Swinton) becomes his only hope to stay in the country and realize his dream.
Not only does Problemista delightfully entertain audiences, but it draws on Torres’ own experiences as an immigrant from El Salvador trying to overcome the financial and bureaucratic obstacles of the U.S. immigration system. Doing stand-up comedy and working in television over the years, Torres has been wanting to write about his own life experiences, but it took a certain degree of growth for him to be ready and do it the correct way.
Problemista, which also stars RZA, Greta Lee, Catalina Saavedra, James Scully, and Isabella Rossellini, is best described as Torres’ attempt at a fairy tale.
Instinct recently had the opportunity to catch up with the multi-hyphenate artist and talk more about Problemista and its autobiographical aspects, as well as the meaningful relationship he and Swinton forged and what this project taught him as an artist.
Check out the full video interview below.
Julio Torres…
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Folks should also check out the Egg Painting Interview that Julio and Tilda did on the A24 website!