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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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The seventeen year-old Iraqi-Kurdish Bilal (Firat Ayverdi) has crossed the Middle East and Europe trying to reach England to meet his girlfriend Mina (Derya Ayverdi) that lives with her family. However he is caught in Calais, France, and sent to a refugee camp. Meanwhile the swimming coach Simon Calmat (Vincent Lindon) is divorcing his wife Marion Calmat (Audrey Dana) and he meets Bilal that wants to have swimming classes with him. Soon Simon learns that Bilal wants to cross the English Channel to be with Mina and the love of Bilal affects him. Simon befriends the teenager and decides to help him. But France penalizes those who help illegal immigrants and a neighbor denounces Simon to the authorities.
"Welcome" is a French film with an emotional view of the illegal immigration, one of the greatest social problems of the century. We see on the news Mexican, Cuban and South American refugees trying to immigrate to the USA; Middle East and African refugee trying to immigrate to Europe; African, Central American mainly from Haiti and South American refugees coming to Brazil. In common, all these people expect to have a better life in the new country. But most of them do not have professional qualification and increase the legion of unemployed or subemployed and illegal workers in the new country.
The director Philippe Lioret brings a different and romantic approach to this problem, with a love story entwined with the sympathetic gesture of solidarity of a man that is needy since he is divorcing his beloved wife and is punished by the French laws for helping the immigrant. The beautiful story is heartbreaking; the performances are top-notch; and this movie introduced a debate in France about illegal immigration. My vote is eight.
Title (Brazil): "Bem-Vindo" ("Welcome")