ELDORADO


Switzerland, 2018, 90 minutes, Black-and-white, Colour.
Directed by Markus Imhoof.


El Dorado is that long-desired for destination, and the finding of riches and gold. There are images of gold during the credits of this film.


However, this is not a film about the search for riches at least in the basic material sense. It is a documentary about contemporary refugees. The El Dorado is a country where they can settle after dangerous flight from their home country and its operation.

The director of this film, Marcus Imhoof, is a German Swiss director who married an Italian and a spent a lot of time in Italy. In 1980 he made a significant film about refugees of the period, The Boat is Full.

The basis of this storytelling is the director’s memory of a young girl, from Milan, who is assigned to his family in Switzerland as a refugee from the war in the mid-1940s. She lived some time with the family then had to return to Italy and suffered ill health and an early death. The director is now composing a verbal and visual letter to her, telling her that she is the reason why he is exploring this contemporary theme of refugees, especially in the Mediterranean and the work of the Italian Navy in rescue.

Significantly, at the opening of the film, there is a celebration of the Eucharist, the priest and some of the Italian Navy personnel at Mass, Communion, scripture readings, personal intercessions and intentions, and the priest commenting on how Pope Francis is very concerned about the refugees, remembering his early visit to the island of Lampedusa in 2013, his pleas for care and concern as well as justice.

While the film does tell the story of the young girl and her influence on the director, her life in Switzerland, her return home, the film moves into documentary mode immediately showing a helicopter shining light on troubled waters, survivors of overturned boats struggling in the Mediterranean.

What follows offers a lot of detail about what happens to the refugees, the initial rescue, sitting in the boats, cold and wet, the welcome from the authorities, their being transferred to a larger boat. Unfortunately, we know that there would be no immediate El Dorado of a country where they can settle. The film indicates there is a rule that whatever our the first steps by a refugee on Europe, that is the country where they will have to stay, even if, as some of them indicate, their families are in other countries.

The film is critical, of course, about the people smugglers and the risks that Africans, especially, coming from Libya, run in their attempt to cross the sea. And, there are also the refugees from the Middle East who come by sea.

Some of the aspects of the film in its later moments are rather depressing. Some of the refugees get their status and are able to stay. Others stay in detention centres, better looked after than in some other countries, but still experienced as a kind of incarceration. There are interviews, questions and tests, rejections.

And, in Italy, when some of the refugees to get work, there is the Mafia influence. The vivid example is given of the growing of tomatoes, the picking, the transport, with everything under the control of the Mafia.

The director remembers the caution that there was during the war but also the important effect of people finding safety, some freedom, a better life. And, this is the hope that many in the audience would have as they watch this moving film. Unfortunately, it is a moving film but the situations in so many countries around the world, northern and southern hemispheres, means that politicians are not moved.

1. An engaging and challenging documentary? Title, focus, refugees, past and present, hope?

2. The title, images of gold during the credits, goal and hope?

3. The director, his story, Switzerland, World War II, refugees in Europe? The comparisons with the 21st century, in the Mediterranean, from Africa, from the Middle East? Refugees and the reasons for their migrating?

4. The director’s own story, his Swiss family, taking refugees from Italy, the young girl, becoming part of the family, the footage from the 1940s, black-and-white, incorporated into the story as memories? Playing with his new sister, her having to return to Italy after the war, her illness, her death, visiting her grave?

5. The Italian sailors at Mass, the priest, the naval chaplain after he took off his vestments? Communion, the men and women, the prayers of intercession? The references to Pope Francis and his concern about refugees in the Mediterranean with memories of his visit to Lampedusa soon after election?

6. The director and his verbal letter to his dead sister, his motivations for exploring 21st-century refugees? In memory of her, inspired by her?

7. The first view of refugees and the sea, from the helicopter, people, objects floating, the rescue, the work of the sailors, the reassurance to the people, the lifejackets, food, their being transferred into the big boat?

8. Issues of identity, documents, the step, the first step into a country which had to be the country of adoption? Refugees with relatives iin other European countries? The background of the Dublin agreement about refugees?

9. The range of men and women, children, the difficulties of travel, the boats, their hopes, the rescues?

10. The refugees being interned, the conditions of the camps, the reactions? The favourable aspects in the care? The sometimes squalid conditions? The angry man who had been refused admittance and his outburst? The representative from the company and his optimistic view?

11. The interrogations by the officials, the translator, the hard decisions?

12. Work for the refugees, help on Italian farms, the small amount of pay, the conditions for the Mafia and control? The example of the cultivation of the tomatoes, the trucking, the prices?

13. The man from Senegal, wanting to return home, with his cows? The regulations from the European Union, tariffs going, the hardship consequences for local industries?

14. The interrogation of the young girl, her time in Libya, imprisoned for a year, not receiving admission? The comments on robots looking after people in the future – and it’s being better for humans to look after humans?

15. The film as a consciousness raiser and challenge?