Refugees’ stories inspire filmmakers
Film at Berlinale probes how IS jihadists recruit European brides
BERLIN, Feb 19, (RTRS): Migration, an issue that has vexed Germany since its 2015 refugee crisis, proved fertile ground for filmmakers at this year’s Berlin Film Festival where they showcased movies looking at refugees’ stories of escape, arrival and integration.
This year’s Berlinale — the 68th edition of the festival set up in 1951 to showcase films addressing social and political issues — shows refugees’ experiences in at least eight entries ranging from documentaries to an adaptation of a 1940s novel.
Filmmakers at the festival said they wanted to send a political message and show how migration was changing Europe.
“It’s much more that you now look at what refugees are doing after they arrived in our Europe. What is their future?” said Dieter Kosslick, the festival’s director.
“Eldorado”, by Swiss director Markus Imhoof, follows migrants who were rescued from near the Libyan coast and taken to Italy where they could either wait in shelters and sometimes end up being deported or leave the camps to work illegally and risk being exploited.
In the film, Imhoof also tells a personal story of his family taking in an Italian girl after World War Two and having to give her up.
Another documentary, “Central Airport THF”, shows the lives of those who stay and wait in asylum shelters through a 15-month blog of a Syrian refugee living in Berlin’s Tempelhof airport.
“The most important question politically speaking to Europe now is how can Europe be a diverse continent. It is really great that there are films that are dealing with that,” said Karim Ainouz, the Brazilian film director.
Through a fictional story that is set in contemporary France showing Germans escaping troops that are occupying Marseilles, “Transit”, adapts a novel by Jewish author Anna Seghers telling her own escape story from Nazi Germany in 1940.
The film which is one of 19 films competing for the festival’s Golden Bear award, details the desperate journey of refugees trying to secure visas and official papers in a bid to escape persecution.
A movie at the Berlin Film Festival that looks at how Islamic State fighters recruit young European women online highlights the dangers of using the internet, the actress in the starring role told Reuters.
In the film “Profile”, British journalist Amy Whittaker goes undercover to investigate the workings of the militant group by creating a fake Facebook profile and pretending to be a Muslim convert called Melody Nelson.
Attracted
She comes up with a cover story, disguises her tattoo, learns a bit of Arabic and dons a hijab. Over the coming days she spends hours chatting online to an Islamic State fighter called Bilel, with whom she makes curry via video link in one scene, and gradually finds herself being attracted to him.
“It’s dangerous for us all to be online because there’s so much access to everything,” said Valene Kane, who plays Amy. “You can basically do anything online and I suppose that’s what the film shines a light on, this new world that we live in.”
“It’s not just Syria — it’s all over. People are being manipulated into different situations with the anonymity of being online and having an avatar or whatever it is that they use to represent themselves,” Kane said.
Bilel, who in the film is originally from London and describes his job in Syria as “killing people”, promises the woman he knows as Melody he will treat her like a queen and get her a cat.