Welcome

Overview

France's illegal immigrant population is given an earnest, charming face in Philippe Lioret's affecting portrait, Welcome. The irony of the title is only the beginning of Lioret's stirring, incisive look at the physical and emotional realities of illegal immigrants, personified by a 17-year-old Kurdish boy, Bilal (Firat Ayverdi). Bilal is desperate to reach England to be with his love, Mina (Derya Ayverdi) and, after a failed attempt hiding in a truck, enlists the begrudging assistance of swimming coach Simon (Vincent Lindon) in order to chance the English Channel.

Couched within this 'odd-couple' dynamic, Lioret confronts his audience with Bilal's plight. Aggressive policemen, apathetic judges and mistrustful locals all compound his sense of alienation. And after traveling some 4000 kilometers to Calais, Bilal can literally see his promised land; the shores of England where asylum, welfare, love and Manchester United await this devastatingly naïve, hopeful youth.

Simon's story outwardly adheres to the conventions of a dejected, lost soul re-engaging with life though this unlikely friendship. An ex-Olympian and, more recently, an ex-husband, Simon marvels at Bilal's passion and devotion to Mina. "I couldn't even cross the road to get you back," he says to his ex-wife, Marion (Audrey Dana). And yet Simon also represents the willful blindness of the French public, as well as highlighting the maddening illegality of assisting such immigrants. Here Lioret has a strident Marion (a teacher and aid volunteer) make more than one allusion to Vichy France and the ghettoising of the Jews.

Unsurprisingly, such provocative comparisons stirred much debate in France, as well as criticism of President Sarkozy's policies that prosecute those offering aid to illegal aliens. For Australian audiences, the response may not be quite so polarising, though Welcome should resonate profoundly with our own, checkered handling of asylum seekers. Michael James Roland's under-appreciated Lucky Miles may have gone for more laughs, but both he and Lioret sought to utilise cinematic convention to convey their uncomfortable, oft-ignored truths.

Nuanced performances and assured direction make Lioret's political fable a joy to experience. Welcome is a beautifully realised call-to-arms, that also manages to share a bit of love and hope with the world.

Welcome is screening at the French Film Festival (with Philippe Lioret taking part in a Q&A screening on March 15) prior to the film's theatrical release on April 1st.