Welcome is a devastating look at the refugee situation in France. The film is set in the coastal town of Calais, where makeshift refugee camps have been erected by young Middle Eastern men stuck in limbo. They can see the Dover cliffs, but only desperate measures can get them across the Channel. Director and screenwriter Philippe Lioret travelled to Sydney during the French Film Festival, where he spoke passionately about the issue.
"When I heard about the problem I thought immediately that it could be a good theme for a good drama. I’m not politician, I’m not lawyer, I’m only a filmmaker and my only idea was to do a good film, with a good subject." Lioret spent six weeks researching the subject. "I spent a long time with [the refugees], I was with them nearly in the trucks. When you see it with your eyes, you can write it exactly like it is. If you write something you never see, you invent and you sometimes overdramatise."
Welcome takes you into the hidden world of refugees, from fraught attempts to smuggle themselves to England in freight trucks, to the demeaning procedure of being tagged by the local police when they are caught.
"They are human beings and they are treated like animals," Lioret exclaims, his frustration palpable. "They are only saving their life. I saw many of them thirteen, fourteen years old, the parents in Afghanistan give money to traffickers so that their boy could escape this country. They are only escaping from war."
At the heart of Lioret’s story is newcomer Firat Ayverdi, who plays the quietly determined Bilal, a teenage Kurdish refugee, who is desperate to join his girlfriend, in the UK. It was a role Lioret wasn’t sure he was going to be able to fill "you don’t know if Bilal exists somewhere in the world. He must be seventeen, speaking Kurdish and also speaking English, and be a young boy from one foot and an adult from the other, and he must be so charismatic that he could be a main character". In a twist of fate, Lioret stumbled across Firat, who had never acted before, when he cast his sister (Derya Ayverdi) to play Mina.
Lioret took a chance "after two scenes of test, each time I looked at the video he was touching me. I said ‘okay Firat if you want, you do the main character’, but I was trembling, I wasn’t sure he could, but you must take the risk". The role of Bilal is physical, involving a lot of swimming. Lioret realised how lucky he had been when he found out Firat played water polo. "Do you know a Kurdish water-poloist? He may be the only one in the world".
Welcome calls for change, and Lioret has been outspoken about the French law that makes helping an illegal immigrant a jailable offence. Lioret’s cause was buoyed by a rare film award. "After the film went to the European parliament we got the Lux prize. And the Lux prize of the European Parliament means that the European Parliament says to the French parliament, this law is unfair."
Welcome is a beautiful film about an ugly issue. The refugee question is undeniably complex, and the director doesn’t have any easy answers "My opinion is that you must not teach something to the audience, you must only show a film. And if they get emotion, if they love the film, when they leave the cinema and they cross the street, if something stays in the brain, it’s okay."
Published in The Brag 29/03/10
