europa (w&d haider rashid, w. sonia giannetto, erfan rashid)

I was the only person in the cinema at the ICA to see Europa, a tale of an Iraqi immigrant crossing the border into Bulgaria. The disinterest in the film seemed unsurprising, although I am sure that were this to have been a film about an immigrant from somewhere whose conflict is more widely covered in the news, there might have been a larger audience. Attitudes towards immigration are inherently racist, and the recent traumatic events on Europe’s border have sadly made this even more clear, if it was ever in doubt. In the style of Son of Saul, the camera keeps close to Kamal’s face as he tries to stay alive in the forest, eluding vigilantes and desperately seeking out food and water. There is one remarkable scene where he manages to flag down a lift from a middle aged woman, who is increasingly scared of him, and finally screams at him to get out. The ambiguous conclusion is equally powerful. Europa is an indictment of Western Europe’s callous immigration policies, told in a high energy style. Kamal is a person, not a number on a spreadsheet, whose elemental quest to stay alive, rather than being alleviated, becomes even more nightmarish once he crosses into the fabled fortress of Europa.