By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 4 cats
Director: Costa-Gravas
Starring: Juliane Köhler | Odysseas Papaspiliopoulos | Riccardo Scamarcio | Ulrich Tukur
Original language title: Eden à l'Ouest
Country: france, greece, italy
Year: 2009
Running time: 110
IMDB: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1158936/
Bruce says: “Costsa-Gavras’s reputation as a master filmmaker was made in 1969 with the dazzling Z, a film about totalitarian rule in Greece. His stance on fascist rule was amplified with STATE OF SIEGE and MISSING, the two politically charged films focusing on South America that followed. It has been over twenty five years since the last of those films was made and nothing in between has matched his earlier work. It is in this context that EDEN IS WEST seems quite remarkable. Costa-Gavras is still intensely political but the grit and angst associated with the earlier films is tempered by a sense of humor. EDEN IS WEST is magical realism, not social realism. If that sounds like SLUMDOG MILLIONAIRE, well yes, it’s not dissimilar just less commercial.
“Elias (Riccardo Scamarcio), is one of many illegal immigrants from an unidentified country who are in a boat that is captured by the coast guard off the Mediterranean coast of France. As the coast guard approached the men throw their ID’s into the water so they cannot be identified and returned to their homeland. Many jump overboard; some drown. Elias is one of the lucky ones who swim to shore. When he awakens among the rocks in the morning he is amazed to see that he has landed on a nude beach which is part of a luxury resort called Eden Club Paradise. To fit in, he strips off his clothes and mingles with the guests who accept him immediately inviting him to play volleyball in the water. It helps that Elias is a devastatingly handsome young man. He finds a uniform of one of the hotel workers and soon finds himself treated like an employee and being asked to repair an overflowing toilet. When he is spotted by hotel security the man in charge corners Elias, then demands sexual favors. The following night Elias is inadvertently made an illusionist’s assistant at the resort’s entertainment center. The magician says ‘If you get to Paris, come see me.’ Next he slips into a bungalow where a German woman invites him to spend the night. As good a thing as he may have stumbled into, Elias is determined to make his way to Paris. The words of the illusionist have become his mantra. After a very silly vigilante manhunt at the resort, he escapes and begins a series of adventures. He hitches a ride with two gay German truck drivers. He is befriends by a peasant woman. He is kidnapped and taken to a work camp where illegals of all races are enslaved.
“Elias’ story is the story of how trust and hope move one man along his trajectory; it is also a story of how mankind exploits people – sexually, financially and politically. In Paris, Elias hooks up with a band of gypsies who are the target of police raids. The police are accompanied by the media who create hysteria of sorts in order to make news out of people’s misery. Throughout the film Elias speaks very little, taking on the air of a modern day Buster Keaton. All over Europe 20-25 million people like Elias are trying to get a toehold in the European Union in hopes of a better life. Divisive forces like the Le Pen followers treat the immigrants like animals but are happy when they do the work no native Frenchman wants to do. 4 cats
(EDEN IS WEST screened as part of the Rendezvous with French Cinema festival sponsored by the Film Society of Lincoln Center.)“