Do Not Let Preparation for the Next Life Pass You By

"Aishe (Sebiye Behtiyar), the young woman at the center of Preparation for the Next Life, exists on a liminal plane of New York that only sometimes intersects with the visible one. She lives in the bustling Flushing Chinatown of northern Queens, a place that serves as a landing place for thousands of immigrants like her who are looking to establish some kind of toehold in the U.S."

"She rents a portion of a mazelike partitioned apartment and toils in the backrooms of warehouses and food courts, a participant in the underground economy of the undocumented, where there's plenty of work to be found as long as you're willing to be taken advantage of by bosses who are happy to remind you of the precariousness of your situation."

"While clearing tables in her uniform at a food hall and dozing exhaustedly in her hoodie on the bus, she's borderline invisible to so many of the people who brush past her every day - but not Skinner (Fred Hechinger), a recently discharged soldier who washes up in the city with everything he owns in a backpack, and who catches her eye over noodles one day, then chases her down the sidewalk to talk."

Aishe is an undocumented immigrant living in Flushing Chinatown who rents a partitioned apartment and works in backrooms of warehouses and food courts. She participates in the underground economy and endures bosses who exploit her precarious status. She is often invisible to passersby while clearing tables or dozing on buses, until Skinner, a recently discharged soldier, notices her and pursues a conversation after seeing her over noodles. Preparation for the Next Life adapts Atticus Lish's novel into a love story that frames their relationship as two individuals in transition. Screenplay by Martyna Majok; the film is Bing Liu's scripted debut.

Read at Vulture