Migration is a burning issue of our today’s society and is becoming more and more topical with each year and requires both correctly formulated questions and well-articulated answers. For many years now filmmakers have been trying to present their own vision of this complex, debatable problem. Admittedly, as far as the problem definition is concerned they sometimes do it better than some politicians and other powers- that- be. For obvious reasons, it is European film directors who offer the most profound and comprehensive insight into the problem of migration.
Migration is a burning issue of our today’s society and is becoming more and more topical with each year and requires both correctly formulated questions and well-articulated answers. For many years now filmmakers have been trying to present their own vision of this complex, debatable problem. Admittedly, as far as the problem definition is concerned they sometimes do it better than some politicians and other powers- that- be. For obvious reasons, it is European film directors who offer the most profound and comprehensive insight into the problem of migration.
Films about migrants can be divided into two groups. The first group includes films where the theme of migration is sort of tangential. In the second group the score is built around forced or voluntary "defectors", which has a direct bearing on all the intricacies of the plot, dialogue, atmosphere and the mood of the narrative.
Visible Shadows
A vivid example of films included in the first group is the work of an outstanding Austrian director Michael Haneke's "Hidden". The family of a popular TV presenter Georges Laurent starts receiving by mail videocassettes and strange pictures. On the cassettes - hours of static pictures of George’s mansion taken from the street, and on the drawings – scenes causing remembrance of the things of the past. A true bourgeois and intellectual, George feels he has to investigate the matter to find out the truth. However, as could be expected, the truth exposes a shameful episode of which the hero has already forgotten, or rather tries to forget.
As always in Haneke’s films, at first sight the detective component comes to the fore: George sets out in search of the mysterious senders of suspicious artifacts. However, it is no more than a snag for the most naive viewers concealing much more serious themes. Throughout the film the director creates something like an intellectual nested doll, wrapping new ideas in seemingly insignificant details. Such as the nationality of an Arab boy whom George’s parents wanted to adopt at one time but then had to give it up because of George’s fierce resistance and protest.
With one masterful stroke Haneke raises a very difficult question: how responsible are former colonial powers before the countries which were at one time under their control? Where is the line between national tolerance and apparent surrender of own interests? Characteristically, the director does not seek a single answer nor does he suggest his own way out of the current situation in France -- complex and even explosive, as has been demonstrated by cases of mass riots. He only states the existence of the problem implying that social context is not the only one possible. As to what is hidden it is better to start discussing it sooner or later – and aloud.
Bruno Dumont in his film "Hadewijch" demonstrates an even subtler approach to the theme. The main character is a young nun whose blind, almost ecstatic faith is so frightening that the abbess herself decides without much thinking to send the girl back to the worldly life. The homecoming does not bring any relief making the girl (who by the way belongs to the top layer of French society) to look at her current sluggish existence from a different angle. The humdrum of everyday life changes after she meets Yassin and Nasir, her peers and orthodox Muslims. It would seem that a clash between two different cultures (intellectual, not literal) could enrich both sides. However, for some reason which Dumont does not explain yesterday’s devout Catholic converts to Islam and is prepared to do her utmost in support of her new convictions.
In all his films Dumont continues to put forward his seemingly atheistic thesis that God is not present in human life and, therefore all our desires and dreams are temporal and futile, all of which, upon closer inspection, represents an intricate form of theism: God exists but He is not interested in man. In addition to a strongly pronounced atheistic pathos the director expresses concern over the Islamisation of Europe, which according to some researchers is already an irreversible process. It is not important where Yassin and Nasir came from nor what their social status is in the French society. What does matter, however, is a set of cultural codes of which they are the conductors. It is these codes which dictate the rules of the game on the basic level, creating from scratch their own system of coordinates in which, for all we know, there soon will be no place for supporters and adepts of the Enlightenment.
An important detail: both Michael Haneke and Bruno Dumont are philosophers by their first education, which one feels in their detached manner of narration when events just happen rather than occur. Their direct artistic approach – no-frills, but thorough and meticulous – is offset by profound insights offered by the directors.
Face to Face
The second group of films on migration includes "The Silence of Lorna" by the Dardenne brothers. A seemingly simple plot – Lorna, an Albanian, enters into a sham marriage with a drug addict in order to obtain Belgian citizenship -- evolves into an existentialist drama in the best traditions of Robert Bresson. However, the "double bottom" of the film does not prevent the spectators from perceiving what is obviously lying on the surface. The Dardenne brothers, former documentarians, coldly dissect the life of the poor girl with its many hardships, torn between duty and feeling.
The gloomiest picture (in the broadest sense of the word) was created in 2007 by Ulrich Seidl who told the story of two lost souls in his film "Import-Export": Olga, a Ukrainian girl , who decided to try her luck in distant Vienna, and an Austrian boy Paul sent on the insistence of his father to Ukraine to sell slot machines. Seidl, a pragmatic and presumably not the most cheerful person in the world, creates several circles of hell for his characters. When they pass through them it becomes patently clear: happiness does not exist, not only in a provincial Ukrainian town, but also in the Austrian capital. Why? It is the social status that usually acts as a kind of blemish.
Interestingly, all these pictures have aroused a great response among the European film community, capturing the audience and critics not only with their artistic merit ("Hidden" and "The Silence of Lorna" became winners of the Cannes Film Festival), but also with their ideological message. What this means is that the directors have hit upon a real sore point of the society and identified the theme and the problem one simply has to ponder about, in this case through cinema.
Hollywood does not shy away from the theme of legal and illegal immigration, but in most cases its realization on the screen is deliberately ironic rather than serious. A more thoughtful stance is taken by “independent” directors. One of the most striking recent examples is “Visitor” by Thomas McCarthy. The plot centers around the relations between a professor of economics and two illegal immigrants from Syria and Senegal, who during the absence of the former manage to settle – illegally, of course—in the professor’s New-York apartment. Distrust is quickly replaced by friendship and a little later by the struggle for human right when one of the illegal aliens faces deportation from the country. In fact, McCarthy has told a universal story about people from different walks of life sharing the same values and ideals. The author's position in this film boils down to a humanistic statement: we are all humans and should help each other. Perhaps such an approach looks simplistic against the background of works by European counterparts but even this is enough to make one’s voice heard.
There is no doubt that recent events (for example, Anders Breivik’s attacks on nationalist grounds and the formal recognition by the German authorities of failed policy of multiculturalism) will serve as a source of inspiration for new films by renowned film directors. The crux of the matter is different: can such reflections influence the real situation? If one is a realist the answer has to be “no”. However, with an important reservation – a negative answer does not mean that it is not important for prominent filmmakers from around the world to share their reflections with their audiences.
