L'escale (2013)

L’escale: Directed by Kaveh Bakhtiari. In the course of living long months with a group of Iranian illegals in Athens, the director examines this radical choice of pursuing a better life through the most perilous of possibilities: clandestinity.

“The subject of the illegal immigration is very delicate and a part of the current events. Nobody can ignore the conditions under which human beings are very badly treated, but we should not ignore problems that arise also in the society of the State which welcomes them. It is thus about questions which concern the human attitude towards human beings and of the authority which manages the coexistence of the citizens. The movie u0026#39; Lu0026#39; Escaleu0026#39; highlights these matters by limiting itself to some Iranians who knew how to cross illegally the Greek borders to be able to go in another country of Europe. The conditions of the reception of the Greek State are more than inadmissible and even more they disgrace not only in Greece, but the European Union also. We wonder if these policemen who turned to the inequitable violence are always unpunished and also continue to violate seriously the laws which forbid this exercise of violence. We also wonder who is the person in charge, so that the conditions in which someone obtains an authorization to stay in Greece does not make us think that we live in a European country. We also wonder if there are institutions which can limit the gravity of the situation of these human beings. Certainly it is a point of view of this movie but which develops its thesis in a satisfactory way. If these Iranians live in these inhuman conditions, we can wonder why and how? A documentary movie must be neutral and present in a clear way the situation. Regrettably, it is not the case of Kaveh Bakhtiari. Being limited in the life of some illegal immigrates Iranians, we can wonder if it is about a report of the life of these characters; even another report is very objective, what is not the case of this movie. So, the spectator could well wait to see the conditions of the passage of the immigrants as well by the sea as by the earth. There is no picture that shows us this arrival of the immigrants and only the description of an Iranian woman can give us a vague idea, in spite of its expressiveness. A documentary has to lean also on the testimony of several witnesses to take up and denounce an inadmissible phenomenon in this country. The objectivity wants that the one who develops a thesis through this movie presents the point of view on the other side, that is of those questions and in this particular case from Greek. Regrettably, this movie did not make it: no agent of the police, no person in charge of the Greek administration expresses himself in this movie. Greece is a country of free expression and the press is often for the quest of the scandal. Did we try to get in touch with television channels or newspapers? Did we get in touch with a lawyer to denounce these abuses of the power? Greece is a member of the European Union and everybody knows it. Who thus denounced this State to the European Union? This movie thus has all the elements to convince us because its subjectivity is much more meadow we denounce a country, it is necessary to see its conditions and its peculiarities, but as this movie is isolated in the life of some immigrants, unfortunately, it can move us but not persuade us. Everybody knows that Greece is in the middle of an economic crisis which dismisses his state employees and which has few ways to act in front of this massive arrival of the immigrants with borders which are difficult to watch. Having a very large number of immigrants which it cannot manage, Greece has to have a help in front of a recent phenomenon for this society. Even we cannot throw such subjective charges if we think that several foreigners knew how to become integrated into this society and find a place which considerably improved their life. But it is a part of happier past and today its population is hard experienced. In addition to that, if we understood well, these immigrants look for a false passport or for a passport stolen to flee the country. How did they enter? Did they have valid papers or not ? Did they really violate the law of this country? This movie often speaks boatmen. Does the director really condemn them? What attitude do we have to have in front of this underground? Nobody doubts that we have to respect the legislation and the institutions of the country. The movie Lu0026#39; Escale seems to be interesting because its questions the behavior of the authorities and the abuses of the power of Greece in front of human drama of the immigrants, but he cannot convince us because there is an absence of argumentation and objectivity. On the other hand, its objective which is not reached seems interesting because we have to make sensitive the European populations in front of this drama which takes disturbing dimensions and can end in the loss of our humanity and in the extremist ideologies if we do not explain all the parameters of a social phenomenon.”