



2025
Unwelcomed
Unwelcomed captures both the vast sweep of migration across mountains and deserts, and the intimate struggles of Venezuelan refugees on foot. With aerial panoramas and close testimony, it reveals a crisis of resilience, grief and hostility. Winner, Emerging International Filmmaker Award, Hot Docs 2025.
Director
Sebastián González Mendez
Amilcar Infante
Runtime
70 Minutes
Country
Chile
Classification
Unclassified 15+
Unwelcomed maps one of the most urgent migration crises of our time. Venezuelan refugees move south across unforgiving terrain, confronting deserts, mountains and oceans in pursuit of survival.
Directors Sebastián González Mendez and Amilcar Infante render this journey with a striking dual perspective. Sweeping aerial imagery offers a sense of epic scale, while intimate testimonies bring audiences to the ground, into the lived experiences of those walking the routes. The film juxtaposes god-like panoramas of caravans tracing ridgelines and coastlines, with the fragile details of human endurance — a mother carrying her child, families navigating checkpoints, young men facing hostility at borders. What emerges is both a geographical portrait and a human one, reflecting resilience, grief, and the criminalisation of displacement.
Winner of the Emerging International Filmmaker Award at Hot Docs 2025, and an official selection of Sydney Film Festival and Sheffield DocFest, Unwelcomed is both expansive and intimate. It reveals a crisis measured not only in numbers and maps, but in the vulnerability of those who keep moving forward.
Directors Sebastián González Mendez and Amilcar Infante render this journey with a striking dual perspective. Sweeping aerial imagery offers a sense of epic scale, while intimate testimonies bring audiences to the ground, into the lived experiences of those walking the routes. The film juxtaposes god-like panoramas of caravans tracing ridgelines and coastlines, with the fragile details of human endurance — a mother carrying her child, families navigating checkpoints, young men facing hostility at borders. What emerges is both a geographical portrait and a human one, reflecting resilience, grief, and the criminalisation of displacement.
Winner of the Emerging International Filmmaker Award at Hot Docs 2025, and an official selection of Sydney Film Festival and Sheffield DocFest, Unwelcomed is both expansive and intimate. It reveals a crisis measured not only in numbers and maps, but in the vulnerability of those who keep moving forward.
“A gut wrenching, indelibly vital look at Chile’s immigrant crisis.”
High on Films
Hot Docs - Emerging International Filmmaker, Sheffield, Sydney
Film Credits
Director
Sebastián González Mendez & Amilcar Infante
Year
2025
Country
Chile
Language
Spanish
Subtitles
English
Type
Documentary & Feature
Program Strand
World Documentary
Producer
Sebastián González Mendez
Writer
Sebastián González Mendez, Amilcar Infante & Hernán Saavedra
Cinematographer
Sebastián González Mendez & Amilcar Infante
Editor
Sebastián González Mendez & Hernán Saavedra
Film Source
Amilcar Films & Jambika Docs
Genre
Documentary & Human Rights
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