To call “Preparation for the Next Life” a simple love story is both accurate and insufficient. Rather, this first narrative feature from the documentary filmmaker Bing Liu reaches beyond the romance between a young Uyghur woman and an American soldier to depict a society impervious to the overlooked and the left behind.
This gives the movie an ache that, even in its more joyous moments, never quite dispels. For Aishe (Sebiye Behtiyar), an undocumented immigrant toiling in the underground kitchens in New York City’s Chinatown, there is no time for anything but work. Tough and pragmatic, Aishe is driven to achieve legal status and financial security. Yet when she locks eyes with Skinner (Fred Hechinger), a troubled soldier recently returned from the Middle East, she is wary and skittish, perhaps concerned that he’ll be less a lifeline than an anchor.
Adapted by the playwright Martyna Majok from Atticus Lish’s 2014 novel of the same name, “Preparation for the Next Life” is all the more potent for choosing naturalism over melodrama and sensitivity over sentiment. Majok, who at one time lived a similarly precarious life, has produced a screenplay that’s cleareyed and coolheaded. The love affair, rooted in small gestures and long, soft glances, starts out with such a charming playfulness — who can pound the most beers, do the most push-ups? — that we continue to hope even when the extent of Skinner’s problems becomes painfully apparent.
“Maybe we can help each other,” Aishe suggests. She trusts Skinner because her father — whom we see only in dreamy flashbacks — was a soldier, and he trained her to feel as strong as any man. But while Skinner is drawn to Aishe’s confidence and industriousness, she is frustrated by his lack of urgency and willingness to drift. It makes sense that they would feel closest in a gym, the control over their exercise routines offering a soothing respite from their increasingly ungovernable lives.
A movie this intent on realism would likely flounder with less talented leads. The multilingual Behtiyar — in an astonishing feature debut — never allows Aishe’s resilience to harden into callousness, while Hechinger gives Skinner the heartbreaking bewilderment of a veteran struggling with moods and memories that resist medication.
Warmhearted and wistful, “Preparation for the Next Life” has personal resonance for Liu, who tells us in the press notes that Aishe’s story closely parallels that of his mother, who also immigrated to the U.S. and fell for an American citizen. Flexing the gift for detail he polished in “Minding the Gap” (2018) and “All These Sons” (2021), the director encourages his cinematographer, Ante Cheng, to poke around the streets and alleyways of Flushing, Queens. Their efforts unearth a panorama of striving, of crowded rooming houses and swarming restaurants, of backbreaking work and uncaring bosses.
It’s a world where help is hard to find. When Aishe, a lapsed Muslim, seeks guidance in a mosque, the imam can only urge her to focus on the next life. Until then, to survive in this one, she will need to learn that not all loves are a springboard. Some are quicksand.
Preparation for the Next Life
Rated R for a little sex, a little violence and a world of hurt. Running time: 1 hour 55 minutes. In theaters.
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