Welcome

"I knew a boy who tried to swim across the lake, It's a hell of a thing to do, They say the lake is as big as the ocean, I wonder If he knew about it" (Yoko Ono,lyrics slightly modified)

Lioret is one of the most promising French directors .His "Je Vais Bien Ne T'En Fais Pas " deeply moved the crowds .His "welcome" is at least as good,as harrowing and as...pessimistic , noir as his precedent effort.

He chose the right actor as the lifeguard :Vincent Lindon was perhaps never better in his part of a disoriented man ,estranged from his wife , in search of the meaning of his life .With his weary face ,his disenchanted looks ,he seems to carry the weight of the world on his shoulders .Which he does ,in a way.

France ,par excellence the country of refuge (particularly political refugees),is shown in a less-than-flattering light than usual;on the other hand ,one can wonder whether the United Kingdom is really the promised land as it appears in the film.In Calais ,people who gave a shelter to illegal migrants were actually troubled by the Police .Although this is not a true story,all that happens to the lifeguard is credible.

Images of Police vans,of sad beaches ,of free meals ,of informers (the neighbor claims that Simon helps the young Kurd in return for sexual relations!)

The divorced hero has become a cliché;but Lioret makes brilliant use of the screenplay cliché: it's perhaps because Simon has become a lonely man that he takes in his young protégé (one should note he's got no children whereas he is in his fifties ).Simon is ready to give all: his reputation ("yes I'm a gay,I sleep with him ,and I sleep with guys that's why my wife walks out on me" ),his dear treasures (his gold medal:"I gave him" ),and maybe even his job .

To swim across the Channel to get to your girlfriend Mina is an impossible task when you are 17 and you're not a first class swimmer.It's the young man's dream and Simon makes his dream his.

"Welcome" is a great movie,one of the best French movies of the last ten years.

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")

In Philippe Lioret's latest film Welcome the title is obviously a contradiction, but the meaning of the contradiction itself is just as obvious. It's about illegal aliens in Europe, in this specific film narrowed down to Calais in France. And they are certainly not welcome.

Pic holds an unsettling tone throughout. While story lines tend to diverge, it's reminiscent of Ulrich Seidl's Import/Export in that it tells a story about people in motion in contemporary Europe. People whose conditions were bad from their take-off point, but becomes nonexistent in the grand, boarder-less EU. The limitations with this modern refugee policy of EU is that it only benefits our own. This is all old news for Lioret's protagonist Bilal (Firat Ayverdi) who comes from war-torn Iraq. His journey to Calais where the story begins has been long and painful, and the way to his love in London seems to stretch far beyond the horizon for the seventeen year old refugee.

These are harsh times, Lioret proclaims through images of a port district infested with immigrants, battering cops and even authorities that manifest a despicable manner not only towards refugees but just as well to people trying to help them. One of them is Simon (Vincent Lindon), a disgraced ex-champion in swimming. He seeks atonement in Bilal for his previous mistakes in life and the two becomes committed to each other. But in these harsh times nothing is certain and struggle lays ahead for both of them.

Philippe Lioret covers pretty much the whole lot of it. Each of his characters carries around on fear, despair, desires, love, longings and struggle. It is classic ingredients taken from the ordinary lives of those immigrants. In Welcome, however, it blends well with the non-immigrants as well. It is something they have to live with constantly, but something that is exposed to us at times as well. It is indeed an unpleasant take on modern refugee policy, but it is nevertheless a necessary take.

A really nice piece about the want to reach your new life and your love. I really liked this piece. The acting was very nice and I thought the thematics of the film was interesting.

I liked the way the director used very plain ways to show emotions inside scenes. There were not that much underlining and there was room for the audience to think and gather some pieces.

The music was also very strong. There wasn't too much of it, but the scenes where it was used, It really gave something to the film.

I recommend this film for an adult viewer who is interested in civilizing him/herself. The one thing that dropped my points from 9 to 7 was the length. It was just too long and it was a great crime with this film not to edit all the boring stuff away.

The noun's meaning: a cordial greeting or hospitable reception given upon arrival; as well as its verb and adjective are horribly absent in Calais.

The crossing of the Channel is a treacherous endeavor for asylum seekers and illegal immigrants. The Channel Passers charge an arm and a leg (with little to no regards for safety conditions) for their clandestine operations. If caught asylum seekers and illegal immigrants are processed, tried, and sentenced to a life in limbo.

Their status allows them to stay in Calais but they are unwelcome and not allowed crossover to the Promised Land. Social workers are kept under careful watch and harassed by the authorities.

It is illegal to welcome an asylum seeker in your home. Jail time is awarded to good souls.

From Calais; when the fog clears, you can catch a glimpse the white cliffs of Dover: 34 km of rough waters to reach the Promised Land. By boat it takes 35 minutes to cross the Channel. By swimming… the world record was set at 6 hours and 57 minutes by a professional swimmer.

After traveling over 3000 km; from Iraq to France, Bilal; a Kurdish refugee, will attempt to crossover the Channel, by any means necessary.

This is a beautiful but devastating movie that will haunt your nights and dog your days.

Simply put: it is a must.