All will be present for the screening of the film in Poitiers, this Saturday, February 25, 2023. Benedicta, Mohamed, Martha and Anibal will be in the Tap Castille room at 2 p.m., while their exile life will be spread out on the big screen.
They are the heroes of the new documentary film by Poitevin director François Perlier, Life started againwhich will be screened in preview, in Poitiers, as part of the festival Film the workthen broadcast on France 3starting March 16.
Fight for the right to work
A year ago, during the previous edition of the festival, François Perlier learned that he was the winner of the call for projects launched by France 3 New Aquitaine and Filming the work. “I have been living in Poitiers for a long time, in a building with apartments welcoming asylum seekers and I am a sympathizer of associations helping people in exile, explains the director. So I had the idea of making a film with these families that I had known for five years. But they finally withdrew, when the project materialized. So I had to find other characters for the film. I was able to do this thanks to the associations: I was able to meet the different protagonists of the film because they trusted the people who introduced them to me. Then there was time spent between scouting and sharing their daily lives. »
This is how François Perlier was able to film, as closely as possible, the daily life of Benedicta, a young Nigerian survivor of human trafficking who wishes to become a nurse, of Mohamed, who left Guinea Conakry at the age of 16 and works in a laundry in Charente. , of Martha and Anibal, who fled political repression in their native Honduras.
The documentary filmmaker’s camera follows them to Poitiers and Ruffec, where fate has led them. “I didn’t want to work on refugee camps, smuggler hotspots and film the human dramassays the director. I wanted to show the people we don’t see, film their expectations, their efforts to find a place in society, to capture the moment when they manage to switch to working life. »
Indeed, if their paths are different, all face the same obstacles: that of the language, first, that of the race for the residence permit, then, and the fight to have the right to work, finally.
Resilience and stubbornness
We thus discover that, for these exiles, the first way not to remain idle and to avoid depression is to engage in voluntary actions, within an association… In this sense, the film fits perfectly with the theme of the 2023 edition of the Filming Work: Informal Work festival.
“Those who had a life of work, before being forced into exile, cannot stand inactivitynotes François Perlier. They also experience a downgrading: political refugees often make the sacrifice of exile to protect their children, to shelter their families, but they lose a lot and never find an equivalent social level. »
This is the case of Martha, who was a lawyer in Honduras, but has no choice but to babysit and do housework, while waiting to have her diploma recognized in France. His resilience and his stubbornness, like those of Anibal, Benedicta or Mohamed, command admiration.
Screening of “Life Started Again”, in the presence of the film crew, Saturday February 25, 2023, at 2 p.m., at the Tap Castille cinema, place du Maréchal-Leclerc, in Poitiers. www.filmerletravail.org
