In a city where music is the only way to drown out the gunfire, a teenager learns how fragile belonging can be. I’m No Longer Here, directed by Fernando Frías de la Parra, and now showing on Netflix, follows a young man forced to abandon the world that shaped him — a world of rhythm, color, danger, and community. As Mexico’s official submission to the 2020 Oscars and winner of 10 Ariel Awards, the film has been praised by Guillermo del Toro as “a jolting, timely piece of cinema“, adding, “I urge everyone to see it.” The trailer is at the end of the article.
Ulises Samperio isn’t part of a cartel. He’s the 17-year-old leader of a small street crew in Monterrey, who survive through music and identity. Their universe revolves around Kolombia, a real counterculture built around cumbia rebajada — the hypnotic slowed-down form of cumbia born in northern Mexico — along with oversized, brightly colored clothes and handmade hairstyles. For the Terkos, this world isn’t fashion; it’s community, protection, a way to carve out a place in a city growing more violent by the day.
But one misunderstanding with a local gang shatters that fragile safety. A stolen radio, a moment of bad timing, an accusation that spirals out of control — and suddenly Ulises is marked. To stay alive and keep his family safe, he flees north, carrying nothing but the music that once held his world together.
When he lands in Queens, Ulises enters a different kind of danger: invisibility. He shares a cramped apartment with day laborers, struggles with English, and watches people recoil from the very music that defines him. The city offers safety from violence but not from loneliness. For someone who built his identity inside a tight-knit community, New York becomes a desert of disconnected moments.
Frías de la Parra films this emotional drift with a patient, observational eye. Monterrey’s streets pulse with neon energy, while the rooftops and subways of Queens feel muted, almost weightless. The contrast mirrors Ulises’ inner fracture — the tension between a home he can’t return to and a country that never truly welcomes him.
The performance by Juan Daniel García Treviño anchors the film. With minimal dialogue, he conveys longing, confusion, pride, and hurt through movement and stillness. The supporting cast, largely made up of non-professional actors, adds a near-documentary realism that makes the story feel lived rather than staged. Few films capture immigrant isolation with this level of emotional nuance.
Themes of migration, cultural loss, and identity under pressure run through every frame. But I’m No Longer Here avoids the typical arc of assimilation or triumph. Instead, it explores the quiet ache of exile — the feeling of being suspended between two worlds, belonging fully to neither. It’s a story American audiences will recognize, even if they’ve never lived it.
The film has earned worldwide acclaim, joining a new generation of Mexican films defined by striking imagery and rich, character-centered storytelling. For anyone drawn to emotionally layered cinema, this is a standout experience. Ultimately, I’m No Longer Here becomes less about the journey itself and more about what a person must sacrifice — or protect — to remain whole.
I’m No Longer Here – All the details
- Original title: Ya no estoy aquí
- Format: Film
- Runtime: 1h 52min
- Genre: Immigration drama
- Country of production: Mexico
- Year of release: 2019
- Directed by: Fernando Frías de la Parra
- Main cast: Juan Daniel García Treviño, Angelina Chen
- Based on: Original screenplay
- Produced by: Panorama Global, Más Ojos Films
- Release date on Netflix: Available now
In the meantime, enjoy the trailer below.
