Morgen (2011, Marian Crisan, Romania/France/Hungary). Fiction. 1h 40 minutes.
Tuesday, February 7th, 2017
Doors at 7:00... Screening at 7:30
@ The Mini - 1329 Main St.
Presented by the Center for Film & Media Studies at the University of Cincinnati.
A thoroughly unique and darkly humorous et somehow inspiring depiction of migration in Europe, Morgen remains as compelling and insightful about the physical and moral struggles on Europe’s borders today as it was in 2011. Nelu, a man in his forties, works as a security guard in the local supermarket in Salonta, a small town on the RomanianHungarian border. This is the place where many undocumented emigrants try to cross, by any means possible, into Western Europe. Nelu’s monotonous existence is thrust into chaos when one morning while fishing, he encounters a Turkish man trying to cross the border. Not able to communicate verbally, the two men will somehow understand each other. Nelu takes the stranger to his farmhouse, gives him some dry clothes, food and shelter. He doesn’t really know how to help this stranger. The Turkish man gives Nelu all the money he has on him so he will help him cross the border. Eventually, Nelu takes the money and promises he will help him cross the border tomorrow, MORGEN...
Atlantiques (2009, Mati Diop, France/Senegal). Fiction. 15 minutes.
Sitting by the campfire, a boy from Dakar named Serigne tells his two friends the story of his sea voyage as a stowaway. Not only he, but everyone in his surroundings seems to be continually obsessed by the idea of trying to cross the sea. His words reverberate like a melancholy poem. A story about boys who are continually travelling: between past, present and future, between life and death, history and myth. Atlantiques won the Tiger prize for best short film at the Rotterdam Film Festival.