EDEN A L'OUEST (EDEN IS WEST)

France/Greece, 2009, 110 minutes, Colour.
Riccardo Scarmaccio, Ulrich Tukur, Juliane Kohler, Anny Duperey, Eric Caravaca, Michel Robin.
Directed by Costa Gavras.

Eden used to be in the Middle East, the old paradise, but with invasions and unrest, refugees from the same Middle East are now looking westwards, to Europe for their Eden and new paradise.

It is forty years since Costa Gavras won an Oscar and international acclaim for his powerful dramatic critique of the Greek generals in Z. This led him to a series of strong, politically stirring dramas in the 1970s and into the 1980s with The Confession, Section Speciale and Missing. In the 1980s, he also looked at political situations in the US in Betrayed, The Music Box and Mad City. But the 1970s was his political heyday.

Eden is West is also political and contemporary, but it is shot in bright colours and is 'softer' in story and treatment. One of the reasons for this is that the story is of one illegal (middle eastern country not specified) who survives the capture of a boatload of people stranded by the boat's captain and crew who abscond with the handlers' fees.

Elias (Riccardo Scarmaccio) jumps overboard, swims to shore, ironically arriving at the nudist beach of a lavish Greek resort, the Eden where, by shedding his remnant of clothes, he is like a contemporary naked Adam who has to begin his sojourn in the West with absolutely nothing. Elias is played very sympathetically by Scarmaccio so that audience sympathy and concern for him is constantly felt during the film.

The second reason for the softer approach is that Europe is not ravaged by war. It has its kind people and its selfish people, but life in the European Union countries is comfortable enough and Elias can survive if he tries.

What the screenplay does is have him know some French so that Paris is his goal. Elias has a series of encounters during his odyssey which represent contemporary comfortable, as well as exploitive, Europe.

Able to steal some available clothes at the beach, Elias is mistaken for one of the staff and carries bags, unblocks a toilet and gets his first tip, is befriended by a middle-aged German woman from Hamburg (Juliane Kohler) and helps in a performance by a friendly visiting magician (Ulrich Tukur, so good as John Rabe) who gives him his card and invites him to look him up in Paris. He also has to participate in the hotel search for illegals including one of this friends.

Elias becomes a kind of 21st century Candide. He is robbed by a passing driver who promises a lift. He is treated kindly by a Greek woman and her children. He gets a number of lifts including one from a quarrelsome couple in the Alps and from two friendly German truck drivers. He narrowly escapes the police at several junctures. This becomes more difficult in France where he spends two weeks working earning cut wages in a factory. A disillusioned fellow countryman, returning home, gives him enough money for a train ticket to Paris.

Elias is able to elude pursuers and does experience the kindness of a number of strangers.

Costa Gavras pictures the plight of the lone illegal and the critique of a materialistically self-absorbed Europe. Then the film stops rather than ends - though sparkling light on the Eiffel Tower offers a final enigma.

1. The title, the focus on Eden, the new creation, the new man, naked? West and the emphasis on the lifestyle of Western Europe in the 21st century? The prospect for refugees?

2. Costa Gavras, his career, his political perspectives?

3. The sea, the resort and its luxury, the roads in Greece, travelling through Greece, into France, the village, the cars, the snow, the truck, the village and the factory, the trains, Paris, the city, the familiar locations, the underground, the Lido, the school? The musical score?

4. The refugee situation, the anonymous country of origin, the many people on the boat, mainly men? Elias and his friend, learning French? The captain leaving the boat, taking the fees, the refugees stranded, the coastguard, Elias and his deciding to jump in Sweden?

5. The resort, the luxury, Greece, the beaches, the sea, affluence? The staff, the nude beach, the nude security guard? Elias stripping, becoming one with the clients, taking the clothes, putting on Western clothes, getting some food, mistaken as on the staff, the blocking of the toilet, the tip? Christine, from Germany, the attraction, the water in her unit, the sexual encounter? The search for the refugees, the manager, his making advances on Elias? Elias and his survival tactics? The encounter with the magician, becoming part of the act, the applause, his card, the symbol of his hopes, thinking had lost it, always keeping it? The confrontation with the authorities, seeing his friend taken by the police, the dead bodies on the beach, his running away?

6. The driver of the car, the promise, stealing his money and driving off?

7. The cart, the family in Greece, the children, the mother looking at Elias in the night?

8. The affluent couple, the husband, the wife and her continual complaints? Ousting Elias in the snow? The friendly truck drivers, concealing him at the border, letting him off so that he could get Paris?

9. Elias using his wits, arriving in the village, the work in the factory, the men considering he worked too hard, the canteen? The clashes at the factory? The threats? Elias and his payment?

10. The police pursuits, Elias invading, the stranded car, the man’s mistake in thinking Elias was the owner, taking him to the next town, his running away?

11. The gypsies, their help, prejudice against them, Elias going into the woods?

12. On the train, arriving in Paris, asking people, the different responses, those who helped, the wealthy lady who saved him, gave him the clothes? On the Metro? Eventually finding the Lido?

13. The kindly old man, chatting, pointing Elias to the magician?

14. The magician, with the children, Elias and his eagerness, watching, the card, the arrogant magician, saying that Elias was in Paris and that he had seen him and driving off?

15. The magician giving him the magic stick, the glowing of the Eiffel Tower, and Elias marching off to…?