© UNHCR / J. Berglund
Aki Kaurismäki thinks Europe has to acknowledge it was also part of creating the problems in Africa that have caused people to flee.
– The restrictive refugee policies in Europe have haunted me for a long time, says Aki Kaurismäki, the award-winning Finnish film director. This is why he made the film Le Havre.
Le Havre tells a story of a married middle-aged man, the retired writer Marcel Marx, who has settled down in the French coastal town Le Havre, where he is working as a shoeshiner. After his wife becomes ill and is hospitalized, Marx crosses paths with a young illegal immigrant from Africa. The boy (Idrissa) has managed to escape from the police when they discovered him in a cargo container from Africa on his way to Great Britain. Together with his neighbours Marx tries to save Idrissa.
According to Aki Kaurismäki the story could easily take place almost anywhere in Europe.
– It is Europe’s disgrace how refugee policies have been handled. No one is worse off than paperless immigrants. Even street dogs live under better conditions, Kaurismäki says.
Kaurismäki is visiting his native Finland to attend a press screening of his new film in September 2011. According to him the problem with refugees and illegal immigrants piles up in Spain and Greece in particular.
– A refugee has to be really desperate to attempt to come to Finland, he adds.
Aki Kaurismäki (54) is a well-known Finnish film-maker. He has made many award-winning films, of which the most famous is perhaps A man without a past from 2002. Distinctive features of his films are the simplistic language, dry humor and the fact that the films often deal with stories of people in the periphery of society. However, this is the first time he touches on immigrations.
– Almost everything is problematic with refugee policies in Finland and Europe. No EU country, including Finland, is completely up to date with the problem. To give some money or to help just a few refugees simply does not work. That’s only band aid, says Aki Kaurismäki. He emphasizes that we need to look at why people want to leave Africa.
– Already during colonialism, when the borders were drawn with a ruler without taking the different clans into account, some absurd states were created and the natural resources exploited. And then there was the slave trade. If we want to solve this, we have to acknowledge we were also part of the cause along with the African dictators, he continues.
Kaurismäki underlines that this is not a political film. However, this time, thanks to the Finnish authorities, he has had the financial means to make a film about a subject that really engages him. While researching for the film Kaurismäki read everything he could find about migrants.
– I met illegal immigrants while shooting the film. There are several persons in the film whose names are not mentioned in the credits, since their status is not regularised, Kaurismäki says. - Many people coming from Africa try to enter Great Britain. The entrance of the Channel tunnel connecting France and the United Kingdom is filled with asylum-seekers and illegal immigrants. Many get stuck in the wheels of the train, Kaurismäki adds worriedly.
Despite the subject, Le Havre is an optimistic film, filled with humour and a strong belief in human solidarity. When asked if Kaurismäki has ever considered making a realistic movie about the topic, he replies: – Consideration and I have met, but we do not go out together.
On 25 December 2011 the movie will premiere in cinemas in Sweden. On 9 September 2011 the film premiered in Finland.
Finland has submitted Le Havre for consideration in the Best Foreign Language Film category to the Oscars. Le Havre received the Fipresci Prize at the 2011 Cannes Film Festival. On 16 December Aki Kaurismäki also won the "Louis Delluc" Prize for best French film in 2011.
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