Oscar-winning filmmaker Laura Poitras has long built her career on documenting real-world institutional failure, from the surveillance state in Citizenfour to the fallout of the War on Terror. But with her new documentary They're Here, she’s turning her lens toward something far more intimate and unsettling: a family’s descent into fear, framed by a father’s conviction that aliens have already won.
The film, which Poitras describes as a direct response to the current political climate in the United States, centers on Andres, a man so convinced that extraterrestrials have taken over the Earth that he locks his family in the basement of their home. It’s a story that sounds like science fiction, but for Poitras, it’s a mirror held up to a country she says is spiraling into a collective nightmare.
“What’s happening in the United States is a nightmare,” Poitras said in a statement accompanying the film’s new release. “This is not a metaphor. It’s a lived reality for too many people, and I wanted to capture the desperation that comes when you feel like the ground beneath you has been pulled away.”
While They're Here premiered in its original form back in 2014 as a Spanish-language feature directed by Sandra Becerril, Poitras’s version reframes the material for a contemporary American audience. The earlier film, which starred Roberto Coria, Silvia Carrillo, Marilú Robledo, Alfredo Gurrola, and Andrés Guizar, told the story of a man whose paranoia tears his family apart. Now, Poitras has taken that narrative and recontextualized it, using it as a springboard to explore how fear itself has become a governing force in modern life.
The connection between the fictional basement and real-world anxiety is not subtle, and Poitras isn’t interested in subtlety. She draws a straight line between Andres’s delusion and the broader sense of helplessness that has gripped Americans facing political upheaval, economic instability, and a fraying social contract. For Poitras, the alien invasion is a stand-in for the forces - both real and imagined - that make people feel like they have no control over their own lives.
“I keep coming back to the image of a family huddled together, waiting for something outside to break through the door,” she said. “That’s how I feel about the country right now. We’re all in that basement, waiting, terrified, and not entirely sure who the real threat is.”
The documentary reportedly weaves archival footage, interviews, and stark, moody visuals to build its case. Poitras is known for her immersive, vérité style, and They're Here reportedly pushes that approach into more experimental territory, blending the original film’s dramatic scenes with documentary commentary. The result, according to early descriptions, is less a straightforward retelling of Becerril’s story and more a haunting rumination on how paranoia spreads - both within a single household and across an entire nation.
That the project has roots in a Spanish-language production adds another layer of resonance. Poitras has frequently highlighted stories that cross borders, and They're Here seems to suggest that the anxieties driving Andres’s breakdown are not uniquely American. But she is adamant that the current moment in the U.S. carries particular weight.
“We’re watching institutions fail, and we’re watching people respond to that failure by turning inward, by distrusting their neighbors, by fortifying their homes,” she said. “The basement in this film is a state of mind. It’s where we go when we stop believing that things can get better.”
The film’s release arrives at a moment when documentary filmmaking has become increasingly urgent and personal. Poitras, who won an Academy Award for her Edward Snowden exposé, has never shied away from polarizing subject matter. With They're Here, she appears to be doubling down on the belief that cinema’s role is to unsettle, not comfort.
Early reactions have been mixed. Some critics have praised Poitras for her willingness to embrace raw emotion over clinical analysis, while others have questioned whether the comparison between a fictional alien invasion and real-world political crises is too blunt. The original 2014 film received a modest 5/10 rating from audiences on TMDb, suggesting that its stark depiction of familial collapse polarized viewers even before Poitras’s reimagining.
For Poitras, however, the goal was never to offer easy answers. “I don’t want people to leave this film feeling reassured,” she said. “I want them to feel uncomfortable. I want them to sit with that discomfort and ask themselves what they’re actually afraid of. Because until we can name the fear, we can’t begin to address it.”
They're Here is now playing in select theaters and available through streaming platforms. Poitras has said she hopes the film will spark conversations that extend beyond the screen. “This isn’t just about aliens,” she said. “It’s about what we do when we feel powerless. Do we lock the door and hide, or do we find a way to reach each other again?”
Source: The Hollywood Reporter
