Welcome

 Welcome 2009 

• Director: Philippe Lioret
• Based on the novel: no
• Cast: Vincent Lindon, Firat Ayverdi, Audrey Dana, Derya Ayverdi
• Personal “oh yeah him/her” reaction, i.e. have seen this actor in:
• Vincent Lindon – La Haine
• Why?  Possibly interesting
• Seen: 9 April 2022 

Bilal (Firat Ayverdi) a 17-year-old Iraqi Kurd, is trying to get to London to see his girlfriend Mina (Derya Ayverdi, Firat’s sister IRL) and pays a smuggler to get him across the channel. He’s caught. He’s released from jail but has nowhere to go so hangs with the hundreds of young men at the Calais harbour who are desperate to get across somehow.

Simon (Lindon) is a swimming instructor whose wife Marion (Dana) is divorcing him.

Bilal has the mad idea to learn to swim so that he can swim to Dover. Simon sets him straight but finds himself helping the boy, though it’s a crime in France to help illegal immigrants. The police hound him.

It’s a melancholy film about unlikely friendship, solidarity, lost love, oppression, and despair. 

4* of 5