REVIEW BY SARAH STEPHENÌý
Escape to Paradise
Directed by Nino Jacusso
With Duzgun Ayhan, Fidan Firat, Nurettin Yildiz and Walo Luond
Distributed by First Hand Films
Frontieres (Borders)
Directed by Mostefa Djadjam
With Lou Dante, Ona Lu Yenke, Clarisse Luambo, Tadie Tuene, Dioucounda
Koma, Meyong Bekate and Delvelin Matthews
Distributed by D'Vision Films
Both screened at the 49th Sydney Film Festival
Escape to Paradise is the story of a Kurdish family forced to flee Turkey as refugees. The film deals with many issues relevant to the debate in Australia about asylum seekers.
Sehmuz Daragan (played by Duzgun Ayhan) has suffered persecution at
the hands of the Turkish state. To avoid torture and imprisonment, he takes
his family to Switzerland, a country which a friend described as “paradise”.Ìý
The film portrays the joy and fear the family experiences as they arrive in Switzerland and lodge their claim for asylum. They are housed in an open immigration centre with other asylum seekers and develop a warm bond of solidarity with them as they nervously await the outcome of their applications.
Sehmuz is confident that he and his family will be given refugee status, until those around him in the centre begin to have their claims rejected. His friend, Aziz (Nurettin Yildiz), tells Sehmuz that his story is not credible because he has no evidence of persecution — he doesn't even know the name of the prison he was kept in because he was taken there blindfolded. In confusion and fear, Sehmuz is convinced to “buy” a false story, with the “evidence” to go with it.
Part-way through his interview with the Swiss authorities, Sehmuz abandons his rehearsed story and decides to tell the truth.
The majority of asylum seekers in Switzerland enter the country illegally, thus avoiding the risk of being rejected at the border. Once across the border, they usually travel to one of four reception centres, where they are kept for 24 hours and submit their application for asylum.
At these centres, their identities and family situations are registered and their fingerprints and photographs taken. Refugees are medically examined within 24 hours of their arrival so that contagious diseases, injuries or other ailments can be identified quickly. After confirmation of their identities and an initial interview, asylum seekers are allocated to a hostel to await a detailed interview about their reasons for seeking asylum. They stay in the hostel while their applications are assessed. Those whose claims are rejected are escorted away from the hostels by government officials.
Escape to Paradise reinforced my view that it is simply logical that an asylum seeker who wants to live and work in a new country will see the process through until the end. Fences and barbed wire are not only a barbaric way of treating human beings, but are also unnecessary.
Switzerland's treatment of asylum seekers isn't painted in glowing colours in Escape to Paradise. It is expected that all “assistance” provided to asylum seekers has to be paid back once they are accepted as refugees. Deportations are brutally enforced. One asylum seeker, frightened of being deported, is tackled by police in riot gear and forced into a van with a bag over his head.
Escape to Paradise emotionally illustrates the difficulties that face those who have no choice but to flee their home countries. Switzerland, for the Daragans, is not paradise. As Delal, Sehmuz's wife, explains to a Swiss official, it's not easy to leave your country and everyone you know and love.
Perhaps the most moving thing about Escape to Paradise is that many of the actors are refugees who sought asylum in Switzerland. The film is based on actual events, and many of the actors have experienced the situations they enact.
Another film that was a feature of the 49th Sydney Film Festival was ¹ó°ù´Ç²Ô³Ù¾±ÂŠ°ù±ð²õ, a heartwarming French film which places you firmly in the shoes of the poor who live outside the walls of Fortress Europe. Six people from Senegal make the journey to the “promised land”. Most are headed for France, their former colonial ruler. They are all making the journey for their own, very different, reasons.
One has lost hope in the future of his country and is in search of work, another man is running from something he'd prefer not to talk about and Joe (played by Ona Lu Yenke) wants to be reunited with his lover.
They are thrown together as they seek the help of “people smugglers” so that they can get to Morocco, Spain and finally France. They leave Senegal through Mauritania, Algeria and Morocco, hiding in the back of trucks for much of the way. The desolate, undulating sand dunes provide a spectacular backdrop to their difficult journey. They are overcharged and taken advantage of at every turn, but are in no position to protest.
The film focuses on the efforts of three — Joe, Amma (Clarisse Luambo) and Sipipi (Lou Dante) — to help each other get to Spain. When they arrive on the coast of Morocco, they stand at the water's edge looking at Spain across the narrow Straits of Gibraltar. Europe appears so tantalisingly close, yet so far away. They work for cash to pay people smugglers for the passage under the cover of night.
The film builds the audience's hopes that the asylum seekers will make it to Spain undetected because it is clear these people deserve a chance for a better life. Do they make it? You'll have to wait for the film's release.
Frontieres urges viewers to reflect on the cruel and unjustifiable methods rich countries use to keep out the poor. It brings you face to face with the consequences of “border protection”. It humanises those who travel “illegally”, and allows us to share their hopes and their hardships. It is a beautiful film.
From 91×ÔÅÄÂÛ̳ Weekly, July 3, 2002.
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