Showing @ CCA, Glagsow, Sat 11 Oct only @ 12.00
Margreth Olin / Norway/Spain / 2012 / 90 mins
In Norway, law states that any unaccompanied minor seeking asylum must be provided shelter until their 18th birthday. The moment this day arrives, their case will be treated as that of an adult; sometimes this will see them granted sanctuary, but – more often than not – it ends with swift deportation. As director Margreth Olin makes clear from the outset, she has chosen to make a film about this because she is afraid; not of the young immigrants her government claims to be protecting her from, but ‘afraid of what is happening to us when we can no longer see the individual.’
Indeed, an inability (or perhaps a refusal) to understand the situations of young refugees is central to their fate. As one boy from Afghanistan points out, there are currently armed forces from 42 nations in his home country, yet life-threatening conflict continues. ‘Can I live there? No.’ When the government suggests that, at 18, boys like him must return home, what he understands is ‘when you turn 18, you will be killed.’
It is a reality that makes Olin’s decision to mix normal documentary footage with black-and-white stills a poignant one; it gives the film the feel of a historical document, as if we are seeing an archive of people whose lives have already past. If nothing changes, these children are already dead.
Instead of life, what they experience is perpetual waiting: will it be rejection, or residency – and often this decision is only provisional. In the meantime, they have no right to schooling and no right to work. It’s heartbreaking to hear a young man look at the supposedly civilised society around him and observe that ‘there is no humanity here. The things about humanity I have read and studied – they’re not here.’ And then, the day comes; his friends prepare to celebrate his 18th. It should be a happy scene, yet as the birthday cake enters the room, the only feelings induced are fear and sadness.
Showing as part of the Document International Human Rights Documentary Film Festival 2014