Interesteg What makes it different from others?

Tetrady not as good as all the hype

Micransix Crappy film

Marva-nova Amazing worth wacthing. So good. Biased but well made with many good points.

hritchey-40709 Philippe Lioret's brilliant film about a 17-year-old Kurdish refugee from Iraq, named Bilal, who is trying to make his way to London to reunite with his girlfriend and also to find a better standard of living and greater security as an undocumented immigrant is refreshingly timely. Bilal has walked across the entirety of Europe and his final stop before making it to London is Calais, France. When Bilal discovers that he cannot cross into London by truck he decides to cross the English Channel by swimming. To do this, Bilal recruits the help of a local swim coach, Simon Calamant, to teach him how to swim. The two soon develop a bond and Calamant provides housing and assistance to Bilal, against French law. Overall, I do not think that the goal of this film was to provide an accurate description of life in the refugee camps, though it would have helped reinforce the desperateness of the refugee situation. I believe that the ultimate goal of this movie was to create a commentary on the way France treats its refugees and that was successfully done. Even the viewer who is not familiar with France's policies regarding refugees can pick up, without a doubt, the hostility with which the French people treat refugees. For example, the grocery store worker denies two refugees entrance to a grocery store and Calamant's neighbors can be seen arguing with him over his decision to help Bilal. It is even illegal for the French to give refugees a ride in a car. The movie was successful in portraying the dichotomy between legal and illegal residents and this was largely due to Calamant's character and the fact that through his actions a lot of the irrationality of France's refugee policies came to light. Even though the story of Calamant's divorce may seem at the surface level to be an unnecessary commercial addition, Calamant's wife was instrumental in getting Calamant to see the error in his ways regarding the treatment of refugees. Especially in the grocery store scene, his ex-wife stands as the antithesis of France's policies and starts to help Calamant realize their absurdity as well. Also, the film does not have a happy ending by design. This helps to illuminate the fact that the refugee situation has not been a positive one and that, for refugees, the road to complete resettlement is a long one. For many refugees, there is no happy ending. Ultimately, Lioret's film is still important almost ten years after its release. That says something about both the storyline of the film and the global refugee situation at hand.

anninapluff Bem-Vindo Bilal is a seventeen-year-old refugee that has traveled from Iraq to Calais. He hopes his final destination will be in Britain to be reunited with his girlfriend. The stigma and hardships of refugee life are one of the most prevalent factors in this film. Bilal has faced trauma that stretches both throughout the film but also invokes a past. Bilal was clearly traumatized by having to put a bag over his head when he tried to smuggle himself to Britain in a truck. We later learn that officials forced a bag over his head at other point in time prior to the film as torture. Bilal has an uncommon resilience despite the challenges of his situation. He resolves to learn how to swim in order to swim across the English Channel. This goal leads him to meeting Simon, the swim coach who supports Bilal. Simon has an interesting character development throughout the film. At first he is very hesitant to help the refugees in any way, given there are strict laws against this sort of thing in France, but he nonetheless did maintain a slightly negative attitude. Bilal changes this. Simon tries to help and shelter Bilal and his friend, but the authorities of France threaten him. The legal status of these refugees comes across as highly ambivalent and the authorities themselves come across as extreme. Despite the difficulties in maintaining a leveled depiction of European law towards refugees, the film works well the develop the dark mood. There are rarely happy endings for the refugees. Bilal's failure to swim across the English Channel, after coming so close, seems to be the best representation of this. These people were treated with ambivalence by the states and for those lucky enough to receive the kindness of ordinary citizens, it was quickly stripped away. Overall the film might have been improved if it worked to incorporate the refugee experience within the camps. We get a short depiction of this early on but Bilal seems to just kind of pop into the narrative without a coherent backstory. Not all refugees were able to find a couch to sleep on like Bilal did. His experience may have been exceptional. I found Bilal to be rarely be afraid. I cannot imagine that someone in that situation would not at the very least express more emotion towards the prospect of unknowingness and unpredictability towards one's future.

Claudio Carvalho 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")

Deenj08 Welcome, directed by Philippe Lioret is categorized as a drama and romantic film. It is a foreign film that is filled with romantic scenes along with dramatic themes in it as well. Phillipe Lioret is a French director and cinematographer, who is known for his films Welcome and Don't Worry. Welcome won the Lumiere Award for best film, one Cesar nomination for best cinematography, and two awards at Berlin. One of his most recent accomplishments took place in 2009 when he won the Audience Award at the Warsaw International Film Festival. I liked the passion in the acting from Bilal and his desire to cross the English Channel to be with the love of his life. I personally love Bilal's determination and fortitude. In regards to the movie itself, the soundtrack added atmosphere to the film. For example, the music heightened the scenes when Bilal was learning how to swim. Also, the swimming in Welcome was not realistic enough for me. Bilal could barely swim in an indoor pool and then suddenly was able to swim in the English Channel. The first scene where you see the channel, the water is rough, cold, and very intimidating. It would have been nice to see him struggle a little more while practicing swimming in the channel's conditions. There are many ideas and themes seen in this movie. Two that are relevant to the French culture is the idea of illegal immigration and political compassion. This movie shows that France has a big issue on their hands in regards to how they treat illegal immigrants. Bilal and the other immigrants are not treated well and are not welcomed by the government of France. This is seen when Bilal goes in front of the judge in France. She tells him that he does not have to return to Iraq due to his country's conditions, but the people of France are not to been seen with him. They are allowed to live in France but not socialize with its people or go into restaurants or any public place. They are exiled to the refugee camp set up for them. The other idea, political compassion, goes along with illegal immigration in France. While many countries are experiencing this issue, France is one that does not have much political compassion for outsiders. This movie goes to show that France has a long way to go with how they treat their immigrants. I believe this movie was a cry for help in this area. The lack of political compassion was demonstrated in the scene when the police came to Simon's apartment to check and see if Bilal was there. They have a no toleration policy when it comes to these issues. I would highly recommend this movie. The acting and plot of this film was excellent, along with the suspense built up by the plot. I thoroughly enjoyed this movie.