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Title: Welcome (2009)
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| Cast overview, first billed only: | |||
| Vincent Lindon | ... | Simon Calmat | |
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Firat Ayverdi | ... | Bilal |
| Audrey Dana | ... | Marion Calmat | |
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Derya Ayverdi | ... | Mina |
| Thierry Godard | ... | Bruno | |
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Mehmet Selim Akgul | ... | Zoran (as Selim Akgül) |
| Firat Çelik | ... | Koban | |
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Murat Subasi | ... | Mirko |
| Olivier Rabourdin | ... | Lieutenant Caratini | |
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Yannick Renier | ... | Alain |
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Mouafaq Rushdie | ... | Le père de Mina |
| Behi Djanati Atai | ... | La mère de Mina (as Behi Djanati Ataï) | |
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Patrick Ligardes | ... | Le voisin de Simon |
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Jean-Pol Brissart | ... | Le juge |
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Blandine Pélissier | ... | La juge aux affaires familiales |
Bilal is 17 years old, a Kurdish boy from Iraq. He sets off on an adventure-filled journey across Europe. He wants to get to England to see his love who lives there. Bilal finally reaches Calais, but how do you cover 32 kilometers of the English Channel when you can't swim? The boy soon discovers that his trip won't be as easy as he imagined... The community of struggling illegal aliens in Calais is captured with authenticity, from the point of view of people who arrived there knowing nothing about France. This immigrant drama, with wonderful performances by the actors, is a strong story which uses documentary austerity and minimalist style to create a great emotional impact. Written by Warsaw Film Festival
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Rightly so, Lioret's film 'Welcome' confronts us with a changing Europe, from one which used to be tolerant to the less-fortunate into one dominated by fear, exclusion and self-righteousness. The anonymous setting of the port of Calais - exchangeable with Dover, Bari or Tarifa or any other border town in Europe – and the hauntingly introvert piano score add to the growing hostilities towards refugees in Europe. The two main characters are, each in their own way, equally tragic: Bilal, a 17-year-old refugee from Kurdistan, in desperately pursuing an impossible dream, and Simon, a disappointed middle-aged French swimming instructor, in not being able to cling onto that dream. The friendship and the actual drama begin when they first meet in a local pool. So far so good. Regrettably, and perhaps regrettably, Lioret diminishes the intensity of this relationship by wanting to provide too many answers to too many irrelevant questions. The result is that story lines, actions and ultimately even the characters become blurred and incredible, which is a great sorrow to inflict on a topic of this social magnitude. One only wishes a little more Dardenne-style type of filming in this film! The strength of 'Welcome' is that is requires us to reconsider to what extent we are willing to be human, social and forgiving towards 'the other' in an ever-harshening world. By examining the attitudes of the shop manager, the neighbour and the bureaucrat, we are eventually confronted with ourselves. 'Welcome' is certainly not an easy film but a highly desirable one.