A Man Has Just Retired, But the Government Insists He Is Dead. Welcome to ‘When I Existed’! (Exclusive Trailer, Plus Chat With the Directors)

Silvio Bertolini lives in Montevideo, Uruguay, and has just retired after 40 years of work. His reward? A pregnant daughter in Barcelona, a wife hoping for a family trip, and a government that insists he is – well, there is no way to put it kindly – dead. Declared dead, Silvio tries to fight a bureaucracy with all sorts of tentacles in hopes of getting the error fixed and reclaiming his life and, maybe, his pension. Some readers may feel this sounds like a nightmare worthy of Kafka. Others may simply feel reminded of their last visit to a government office. Either way, Silvio’s story and misadventures are now coming to the big screen. When I Existed (Cuando yo existía) is the title of the social satire that is the feature debut by writers-directors Alejandro Damiani and Martin Avdolov, a Uruguay and Spain co-production fueled by black humor – and frustration. The movie will get its world premiere in the Critics’ Picks Competition of the 30th edition of the Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival (PÖFF) in Estonia on Wednesday, Nov. 18. César Troncoso (Another Story of the World), one of Uruguay’s highest-profile stars, leads the film, with Silvia Kutica, Néstor Guzzini, Maruja Bustamante, Mónica Gonzaga and Mirella Pascual also featuring in the cast. The cinematographer is Manuel Branaa, with editing handled by Dan Avram, Martí Rocca, Damiani and Avdolov. The producer of When I Existed is Federico Cetta for El Cielo Cine. It is a co-production with Spain’s Doce Entertainment (David Matamoros) and Uruguay’s Metropolis Films (Andrés Rosenblatt), with Moon Ideas (Matías Burgos) as associate producer. The film was made with the support of ACAU, FONA, MVD Filma, MVD Socio, FIC and Ibermedia. m-appeal is handling sales. “This is a story of reinvention built around the things that truly matter,” says Cetta. “It’s a film born from the deepest fear any human being can have: how are we supposed to live? No one teaches you that,” highlights Damiani. And Avdolov shares: “This story speaks to us in a world where we have the constant feeling that time is slipping away between obligations we don’t always choose. What do we do with the time we have? Today, we need small acts of resistance against a logic that tends to make everything increasingly automatic and artificial.” THR can now exclusively premiere the trailer for When I Existed. Turn on the English subtitles, put your Kafka glasses on and enjoy! Avdolov and Damiani talked to THR about the long journey to get the film made, casting a well-known Uruguayan actor as their lead and why people all over the world may recognize the empty offices and multitudes of forms that Silvio encounters on his odyssey through the labyrinth of bureaucracy. When I Existed may not be as much Kafka as, well, Avdolov puts it this way: “think maybe it’s more post-Kafka. Because nowadays there’s nobody in the bureaucracy. There are no people, and we are playing with that concept. We enjoyed making this movie about reality. Now, when you go to some office in some big building, they are all empty, and there are few people working there.” The wild goose chase that Silvio embarks on was also somewhat reflected by the filmmakers’ persistence that allowed them to get the film completed. How long was the process behind the movie? “Only five to six years,” jokes Damiani. Much of that time was spent writing, which started during the COVID pandemic, and especially looking for funding. “In Uruguay, you have a lot of people doing good things in two jobs,” he quips. “For example, Martin and I are not only directors. I am a fitness model.” And Avdolov chimes in: “We are soccer players!” Well, in fact, Damiani has worked on TV series and film productions as a director, writer, and visual artist, while Avdolov has written short stories, as well as non-fiction and children’s books. Both call their star Troncoso “amazing.” And he needed stamina for When I Existed. “One of the tricky things is that he participates in all the shots, because we maintain the first-person perspective in the movie,” highlights Damiani. “So, in the whole movie, he is in all scenes. That’s really, really crazy and really, really hard work.” Avdolov lauds the star, saying, “We have to be really thankful about the job [he did] because he made the movie possible.” The creative duo also rewrote and reshaped the script for their star. “When he came on board, we realized that we had an opportunity to have more drama and a better movie, with less comedy,” Damiani tells THR. The main pension office building that Silvio keeps having to go to looks and feels like a leviathan. It may not be pretty, but the capital city of Montevideo and the country’s past helped provide this stage. “Uruguay has, like a lot of parts of South America, a lot of brutalist architecture because of things that happened here,” explains Damiani. “It was perfect for the film in that sense.” Audiences will be able to take messages for their own lives from When I Existed given that Silvio has always focused on his work and career – until his retirement money seems out of reach. “Anyone who tells you they know how to live hasn’t learned yet how to live,” Avdolov tells THR. “We always have to adapt. It’s a really defiant time to live through now because of all the technology, AI and all the wars. But Earth has always been a really hard place to live on. Are we caring for the people in our family and our friends, or are we just living like robots on autopilot? These are some of the essential questions for us.” And that also makes the issues and challenges that When I Existed explores universal. “We come from Uruguay, but these are universal themes. Everybody is struggling with these problems and with a fear of the future. It can be a very shallow life but I think we are deeper as human beings. The system makes you live in the shallow [waters] all the time – it’s about entertainment, entertainment, dopamine, entertainment, dopamine, entertainment, and you don’t have time to read a book. So take time for yourself!” Asked about their creative influences, Damiani shares that “one of my favorite movies is Brazil from Terry Gilliam, but we wanted a new point of view.” He describes that perspective this way: “We cannot beat the system, we cannot beat the bureaucracy. But that is not the important thing. The important thing is that we are free to realize that we can [re-evaluate] our own lives.”