Final Rating: 2.5/5
In modern society, one of the most complex issues is immigration. In an era where globalization is a central theme in the world, especially in the trades, the migration of individuals has become a sensitive topic. One of the perpetrators of that is the context of wars, particularly of the post-War on Terror and the diplomatic and military positioning of the United States in the aftermath of September 11th.
The result of that policy is the destruction of infrastructure and stability in the Middle East, which has affected countries like Iraq, Libya, Yemen, Syria, and Afghanistan. In the following decade, the uprising of the Arab Spring, a popular organizational force spread online, led to the fall of dictators, and the beginning of the Syrian Civil War, resulting in millions of people being displaced and forced to flee.
In this sense, the directorial debut by Kenya-Jade Pinto, The Sandbox, studies the intricacies of the immigration waves from a data perspective. Lately, countries, more prominently those considered the first world or the Global North, such as the United States and the European Union, have invested millions or even billions of dollars in surveillance systems for the borders.
Drones and satellites that capture the warm map of individuals moving around a border, anticipating the movement of large groups of immigrants towards a country. As said by one of the interviewees, the most crucial commodity nowadays is information. Corporations invest substantial money to collect information from multiple groups, leading them to gather more specific and personalized data for upcoming investments.
Consequently, the director attempts to portray the immorality of the investments in systems of surveillance rather than the acceptance and care of those migrants in the countries. In the 2010s, multiple far-right political groups reached presidential and administrative roles by advocating against immigrants, justifying that they steal jobs and commit crimes.
The Sandbox expands the horizon on the diminishing of the individuality and the process of dehumanization of those individuals. The most prominent vocalist of that discourse is Donald Trump, who got himself elected by promising to build a physical wall between the United States and Mexico, which he did not do. Instead, the result was detention camps, which provided horrible conditions to those persons, and the separation of children from their families.
Despite the utterly urgent topic, The Sandbox feels too broad in its execution. There is plenty of technical information on the dialogues between subjects; still, there is a vacancy in the construction of the documentary. It feels distant from the dangers of the acquisition of that data, especially because they belong to endangered people who risk their lives on a boat to attempt a better life.
When it focuses on the surveillance systems, there is no compelling look at the situation as a whole, rather than the lookout system as a military technology. It is a tool for dehumanization and the attempt to detain those who want to work and construct something valid, but do not get those opportunities at home due to powers like the U.S. and the European Union that promote the destruction of their homes.
Finally, under the bureaucratic approach characteristic of the first feature, The Sandbox is a look at the dangers of surveillance systems as a military tool. There is a distance in the approach and the interviews that diminishes the perspective of the far-right discourse anchored by the sponsoring from the countries to corporations, who profit through violence and the robbery of data. Unfortunately, Kenya-Jade Pinto constructs a tonally challenging film, which reflects on the problematic, but fails in the structure as a whole.
The Sandbox was seen during the 2026 Hot Docs film festival. Thank you to Touchwood PR for the screener.
