We 02 Dec 09
IDFA Film – Welcome Europa
The IDFA (International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam) is the world's biggest festival for film documentaries. At the request of the 4th IABR, the IDFA compiled a special series of documentaries about the city which will be shown during the Biennale.
Today Welcome Europa by Bruno Ulmer (France, 2006, 90 min.)
How many young illegal immigrants roam the streets of big European cities, looking for a job, a stroke of good fortune or the right contact? Welcome Europa introduces us to some Kurdish, Moroccan and Romanian young men trying to find their way in Paris, Amsterdam, and other cities. Without a residence permit and deprived of help - except for a sporadic shower and a hot meal - these guys are on their own. These are not adventurers, but men who fled their countries for political reasons or whose poverty forced them to leave their families and support them from abroad. They wander around and generally do not have much success. Europe is not what it was cracked up to be, and they all end up at the bottom of society. The agile camera captures their raw existence on the streets. In black-and-white intermezzos, they speak in detail and very candidly about their past and the problems that they face. Their introduction to modern and prosperous Europe is disconcerting to say the least. It is almost impossible to survive in the streets without ending up in prostitution, but they refuse to give up their dignity just like that.
+ 31 10 4401342
The Hood, NAI
Wed 2 Dec, 3 pm
Sun 6 Dec, 12 noon
IABR day ticket/PP
