As a form of art, cinema can be used for many different purposes. A movie can entertain the audience or move people, but it can also be used as a political tool to denounce the injustices that plague our world. That’s the case in Pier-Philippe Chevigny’s Temporaries (Richelieu), a devastating movie about how immigrant workers are exploited by first world companies that can’t abuse the citizens of their own countries quite so easily.

In Temporaries, we follow Ariane (Ariane Castellanos) as she returns to her mother’s home in Canada after a complicated divorce. Ariane’s former husband is in jail for fraud and she has inherited all his debts. That means she’s forced to find a job as fast as possible, which leads her to be employed as a translator in a corn factory. Ariane is responsible for mediating the communication between the factory director, Stéphane (Marc-André Grondin), and the Latino workers the company employs as temporaries. As a translator, Ariane must remain neutral and just repeat in Spanish the words she hears in French. However, as time goes by, the unfair treatment of the immigrant workers forces Ariane to become an ally in their fight for basic human rights.

While the plot of Temporaries unfolds exactly as we expect it to, the movie’s strength lies in how it doesn’t refrain from presenting a detailed accounting of all the strategies big companies use to bypass the law to increase productivity. There’s a reason companies located in wealthy countries prefer to hire immigrants for hard labor: they are vulnerable to all sorts of abuses. Furthermore, the position of a temporary worker itself puts an unfair weight on their shoulders as there’s always the threat of an abrupt end of the contract. And if big companies are normalizing freelancing work in place of steady job positions in all areas, to avoid paying for their benefits, the situation is even worse in areas that can employ people without a formal education, and whose lack of experience makes them easier to manipulate.

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‘Temporaries’ Explores the Horrors of Late Capitalism
Image via Karlovy Vary International Film Festival

Like Ken Loach’s Sorry We Missed You, Temporaries delves deep into the horrors of modern slavery, where people are forced to choose between their freedom or survival. As the years have passed, corporations have developed many workarounds to get rid of the rights workers fought so hard to acquire in the 20th century. With temporary work, for instance, the promise of quick gains in a stronger currency while working abroad leads many people to leave their families and expose themselves to inhumane work conditions that break their bodies and their souls. And, of course, companies spend a good amount of money hiring people that’ll help them evade the protections unions and legal systems can offer workers. All in the name of profit. Temporaries explores this complex situation in detail, offering an unflinching look at the exploitation of immigrant workers. If the film is a work of fiction, it’s built over a reality that many would prefer to ignore.

While Temporaries is worried mainly about the immigrant workers’ dire situation, the movie is also smart enough to explore how the abuses they suffer can’t be blamed on a single person. The movie explores how the cruel system of capitalist production robs people of their humanity, lest they be thrown to the bottom of the food chain. That’s why, as cruel as the factory director can be, the movie also takes time to explore how his job, and therefore his survival, is also on the line. The owner of the means of production has everyone’s lives in his hands, and he only cares about the cold numbers. Production must go up, and the human cost is not even a variable in the formula of success. That doesn’t mean people are without agency, as Temporaries also explores how, even in the harshest situations, there’s still room for compassion and solidarity.

Chevigny also does a wonderful job giving the immigrant workers at the center of the movie humanity. Despite the brutal work conditions, which they must accept or risk getting fired, the group also finds time to share meals, music, and stories, clinging to whatever vestige of a normal life they can have. These moments of levity are essential for Temporaries to convey its message, as it allows the audience to see the group as more than general workers, but individual people, with their own contradictions and idiosyncrasies.

Castellanos Is Magnificent in ‘Temporaries’
Image via Karlovy Vary International Film Festival

The heartbreaking condition of the immigrant workers of Temporaries becomes even more evident thanks to the strong performances of the entire cast. Castellanos shines in the main role, torn between the chaos of her life and the need to stand against injustice. In addition, the whole cast manages to play their parts with the passion audiences need to connect with these characters, sharing their woes and fears as Temporaries exposes the entrails of a game with very few winners and many immoral players.

Thanks to the convergence of a solid script, tight direction, and heartbreaking performances, Temporaries stands apart as a drama about the state of modern labor. While the message might be put ahead of the story sometimes, this is still an essential movie to better understand how the invisible chains of production govern our everyday lives.

Rating: B+

Temporaries had its world premiere at 2023’s Karlovy Vary International Film Festival.