Liège > Cinéma Sauvenière
Illégal
Olivier Masset-Depasse
Tania and her 14 year old son Ivan are Russian and have been living illegally in Belgium for eight years. Always on alert, Tania fears police checks until the day she is arrested. Mother and son are separated as Tania is placed in a detention center. She will do anything to get her son back but still can't escape the threat of deportation.
Presented this year in Cannes during the Directors' Fortnight, this film has the originality of placing the action at the core of a detention center. Well documented, Olivier Masset-Depasse's film lifts the veil on police attitudes, covered by procedures to mask the beatings and humiliation. Illegal is not only a political broadside, but also a true work of cinema. The frames are moving, the colors cold and the characters always imprisoned behind bars, windows and walls. Far from being Manichean, Olivier Masset-Depasse deeply moves the audience through his accurate portrayal of the main character's suffering as well as the doubts of a prison guard. It is by these subtle nuances that the director is able to convince viewers of the honesty and thus of the truthfulness of his enterprise, and it is by the mix of emotion and rage that he wins the hearts of the audience.
The film was awarded the 2010 prize from the Society of Dramatic Authors and Composers in Cannes.
In partnership with CRIPEL, Point d'Appui, and CRACPE.
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