‘The Last Shelter’: a pit stop on a migrant’s route
THE documentary The Last Shelter won the award for Best African/south African Feature at the Encounters South African International Documentary Festival this week.
The story is about migrants who have made a pit stop at a halfway house. Some are on their way to Europe, while those whose luck has run out are returning home.
The film will be featured later this month at the Durban International Film Festival.
Produced by Cape Town-based NGO production company Steps, it was filmed in the Malian city of Gao.
Encounters Film Festival Director Mandisa Zitha classified the award as the top prize of the festival.
“This is the programmer’s choice
award, meaning that the team that programmed the festival were able to choose what we think are the best films, based on quality, subject matter and how it resonated with audiences.
“For us, it is about celebrating and awarding excellence in documentary film-making in the continent.”
The Last Shelter draws on the theme of immigration and some of the aspects that go along with it.
Director Ousmane Samassékou said: “There are various sub-themes within immigration. The Last Shelter also looks at the psychological aftermath, physical and mental violence, abandonment and self-sacrifice.”
Samassékou was inspired by a story from his upbringing when he created the documentary.
“I remember my uncle leaving when I was a child and we never heard from him ever again. As I grew older, I realised that this story is similar in many African families,” he said.
A few years back, Samassékou remembers hearing a story about a woman staying in a house called “The house of migrant” and took it upon himself to investigate, thinking that his uncle might be there.
“I decided to go to Gao to discover this place and see how I could document it in addition to my uncle.”
The film homes in on the lives of people who no longer have a home once they plan to migrate. The Last Shelter looks at the melancholy that comes with exile while new and old wars happen around it.
The documentary film went through many titles before finally deciding on The Last Shelter. Samassékou said that he had preferred The Last Refuge.
“It can be the last place of a person such as a grave or a shelter to protect oneself from a danger. It can also be a place where one flees from everything to rebuild oneself and reconnect with life.”
While filming, one of the biggest challenges that Samassékou faced was to convince the person in charge of the house of migrants to allow him to film there.
“I had to convince the migrants who passed through this place to accept to be filmed. Above all, I had to talk to them about the sincerity of the subject,” he said.
“I ate with them, played cards and footsies with them and exchanged without my camera. They got to know me and my work. Some of them started to confide in me and told me that they wanted me to make a film about them, which I was happy to do.”
The director said he felt a great sense of accomplishment and pride for having won this award at the festival.
“It is the first African award for the film and it was awarded in South Africa, one of the countries that are producing the film.”
Audiences will again have a chance to watch the film during the Durban International Film Festival, online from July 22 to August 1.