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It was while driving on the motorway that I discovered a strange refugee camp inhabited by gypsies from Romania. An improvised encampment in the middle of the trees, stuck between the lanes of the A10. For a second, I thought I was having a flashback. But it is only the current version of a never-ending story, that of people who are forced to leave everything behind to escape poverty. I wanted to understand the motives behind that exodus, where those people came from, who those those “strange strangers”, much like the Portuguese and the Algerians had been in the projects on the outskirts of Paris, were. By filming them, I wanted to make them familiar, to destroy the prejudices we have about them and to tell the story of immigrants who are merely looking for a better life.
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Original Title:
Le Bateau en Carton -
Country:
France -
Year:
2010 - 80'
Director
José Vieira
Born in Oliveira de Frades, José Vieira left for France in 1965, aged seven. Since 1985, encouraged by the political transformations that took place in Portugal and by his own involvement with immigrant solidarity groups, he has directed around thirty documentaries for France 2, France 3, Cinquème and Arte, creating a portrait of immigration in France based on his own personal experiences and the individual stories that he has come to know.
The great difficulties endured by Portuguese immigrants – life in the slums, fraudulent employers, as well as hate and discrimination – motivated José Vieira to reconstruct a collective memory and a narrative that applies to all of these immigrants, regardless of their origins, by explaining the motives which led them to leave their country and fight for a better life.
The great difficulties endured by Portuguese immigrants – life in the slums, fraudulent employers, as well as hate and discrimination – motivated José Vieira to reconstruct a collective memory and a narrative that applies to all of these immigrants, regardless of their origins, by explaining the motives which led them to leave their country and fight for a better life.
