La Cinémathèque : "WELCOME"

This evening I went to The Charles Theatre in Baltimore to see a foreign film entitled "Welcome." It's part of the theatre's cinematheque series.

Synopsis:
Bilal is 17 years old, a Kurdish boy from Iraq. He sets off on an adventure-filled journey across Europe. He wants to get to England to see his love who lives there. Bilal finally reaches Calais, but how do you cover 32 kilometers of the English Channel when you can't swim? The boy soon discovers that his trip won't be as easy as he imagined... The community of struggling illegal aliens in Calais is captured with authenticity, from the point of view of people who arrived there knowing nothing about France. This immigrant drama, with wonderful performances by the actors, is a strong story which uses documentary austerity and minimalist style to create a great emotional impact.

This film was quite moving and gave a whole a new meaning to the word "determination." I was truly impressed with Bilal's determination despite the many obstacles that stood in his way. The word "no" was never in his vocabulary as he pressed on after each failure. What I also admired about him was that he was always polite and thankful - a rare combination given the circumstances.

I highly recommend this film - it had a lot of heart!

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