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2010 Festival Feature Films (March 25-28)

Actor Firat Ayverdi presents Welcome

director Philippe Lioret screenplay Philippe Lioret, Olivier Adam, Emmanuel Courcol starring Vincent Lindon, Firat Ayverdi, Audrey Dana, Thierry Godard running time 1 h 55 min general audience

Synopsis

To impress her and win back his wife’s heart, Simon, an instructor at the Calais swimming pool, decides to defy the law by helping a 17-year-old Kurdish illegal immigrant reach England by swimming across the English Channel.

director/screenwriter
Philippe Lioret

accomplishments

actor
Vincent Lindon

actor/screenwriter

director/screenwriter

actor
Firat Ayverdi

actress
Audrey Dana

Interview with director Philippe Lioret

How was the project, Welcome, born?
First from the enormous desire to create a film on this subject. For these people who are fleeing their troubled countries, who want at all costs to reach El Dorado, which in their eyes is England, and after an unbelievable journey, they find themselves stuck in Calais, France, bullied, brutalized and humiliated just a few kilometers from the English coast, which is even visible in the distance.

One night, while talking with Olivier Adam, I started to think that the place between England and France was like the Mexican border in the U.S., and we only had to dig a bit to find an incredible dramatic subject. I spoke with Emmanuel Courcol and we started to think about a story that could take place in this framework.

And how did you proceed?
With Emmanuel, we contacted the organizations that did what they could to help these poor people and we left for Calais. During many days of an icy winter, we were in the midst of the lives of these volunteers and the hell of these refugees: the “jungle” in which they live, dangerous clandestine border-crossing, incessant police persecutions — an entire branch of the riot police is dedicated just to them — detention centers, truck and ferry checks where they risk their lives to escape CO2 or heartbeat detectors, scanners, etc.

What surprised us a lot is the age of the refugees, the oldest are not even 25. There are even 15-year-old kids who tackle this insane journey alone. While speaking to Sylvie Copyans of the Salam Association, we learned that many of them, in desperation, have even risked swimming across the Channel.

Staging is omnipresent, even though the camera seems discreet, almost invisible.
To film a scene well, there are not umpteen places for the camera, so we needed to find the perfect one. I insist on asking actors for authenticity, but the camera also has ways to “speak off-key.”

If in a scene, we feel the camera’s presence too much, if camera movements are unmotivated or decorative, unconsciously we say: “Ah yes, it’s cinema,” and then I get the impression that instead of gaining, we lose something. And then, as a viewer, when the film pleases me, it is as if someone has given me a gift. But if I see too much camera work, I get the feeling that one left the price tag on it.