BORDERS/FRONTIERES (2002, Algeria, 102 min.), directed by Mostéfa Djadjam; screenplay by Mostéfa Djadjam; cinematography by Pascal Lagniffoul; edited by Pauline Dairou; music by René-Marc Bini; with Lou Dante (Sipipi), Clarisse Luambo (Amma), Ona Lu Yenke (Joe), Doucounda Koma (Kadirou), Tadie Tuene (Moussa), Meyong Békaté (The Marabout), Delvelin Matthews (Arvey), Félicia Massoni (Isabelle).  In French with English subtitles.

“I’m trying to restore some humanity and some dignity to these beings who are too often nothing more than a statistic.”—Mostefa Djadjam

“They’re civilized over there.  They don’t like guests to just drop in.  We need reservations. It’s not like at home, where you can just drop in any time.”--Joe

“Things have changed:  today’s slaves have to pay for their own transport.”—Sipipi

            Four men are being paddled across a river in the moonlight.  The setting is peaceful and beautiful, but they are far from enjoying it.  They are tense, apprehensive, and we soon realize why.  They are making an illegal crossing of the river that separates Senegal from Mauritania to the north.  They come from different countries West Africa (Guinea, Togo, and Senegal), and all that they have in common is the French language (“They are all children of General DeGaulle!” jokes their guide) and an intense desire to make their way to Europe, whatever the cost.

            The cost will be high—both monetarily and in terms of the discomforts and risks to which they submit themselves.  Each has his motivation.  There is starry-eyed Joe from Senegal, with his big, beautiful grin, who has a French lover waiting for him on the other side of the Straits of Gibralter.  There is Sipipi, the blunt-talking sailor who knows there is no work for him in Africa.  There are Moussa, the former teacher who was fired from his post when he protested the impossible working conditions at his school, and his young cousin Koudirou, who believes that he has a mechanic’s job awaiting him in the Parisian suburbs.  They soon pick up two others.  The old “Marabout” (i.e., a traditional Muslim healer) wants to go to Europe with his plants and his powders.  Arvey, who has been wounded both physically and psychologically by the strife in Liberia, is the only Anglophone among this Francophone mix of nationalities.  He wants to go to Manchester to play bass and be part of the music scene.  Eventually, they will be joined by the final member of the party and the only woman, Amma, who has been betrayed and abandoned by her husband, and is driven to find and confront him. 

            Their clandestine journey takes them overland from Senegal to Mauritania to Algeria (avoiding Western Sahara because of the land mines there), then to Morocco, to Tangiers and the Straits.  The route is a brutal one, and those who will lead them are equally brutal and potentially treacherous.  The group members are nearly all city folk, ill-prepared for their trek through the desert and rugged mountainous terrain, in the backs of pickup trucks or hidden away in refrigerated truck trailers, or slung over the backs of dromedaries, or on foot.  Every stranger is a potential betrayer, every distant noise a police car or a helicopter on the lookout.

In the face of these discomforts and dangers, the group members come to form a volatile little community, good-humored and mutually supportive sometimes, at other times consumed by distrust and despair.  They gaze enviously at birds or at shooting stars, which can so easily pass across these artificial frontiers that human beings have created for themselves. 

 By the time they make it to Tangiers, the group has splintered, with Joe, Amma, and Sipipi staying close to one another, Moussa and his young cousin seizing illusory opportunities, the Marabout going down his own path, and poor Arvey lost to them all.  In Tangiers they wait, with Spain—and all that it represents--a scant, tantalizing 14 kilometers away.

* * *

Borders is a grim tale, and unfortunately a very real one.  Though the individuals in this film are fictional characters, their stories can be found every day in the world’s newspapers.  The story of these desperate Africans is of course not limited to Africans alone—we can find this kind of thing happening everywhere around the world, as globalization continues to disrupt traditional means of production and social systems.  So many forces are at work to propel these global dislocations.  Social and political instability, plummeting commodities prices, and lack of employment push people to leave.  The media, with its selective portrayals of life in the West, exacerbates the age-old temptation to pack up and try one’s luck elsewhere; it also breeds contempt for the culture and traditions that they know.  Foreigners in factory ships coming close to shore strip the coastal waters of fish, putting local fishermen out of work, impelling them to put their boats to other uses—like smuggling clandestine immigrants.  Europe (like the U.S.) is hungry for cheap labor, so there is a ready market for the services of those who choose to make the attempt. 

Thus, tens of thousands of individuals (and not just Africans—many are starting off in South Asia) are risking the dangerous journey from Africa to Europe every year:  first to the coast of Africa, and then on to the Canary Islands, Malta, Sicily, or the European mainland—and many of them do not make it. 

            The film is fundamentally an attempt to shed light on the situation of these people, to help us to understand their dreams and the terrible obstacles that stand in the way of their realizing their dreams.  But this is also a story of human character, the way that character is tested by circumstances, as individuals choose their respective paths.  These are not simple, one-dimensional victims.  Yes, during their journey through the desert, the men are forced to be passive human cargo, at the mercy of their handlers, a situation that provokes a certain cohesion among them, despite the occasional flare-up.  Having made their decision to leave, they have little choice but to resign themselves to follow their fates and stick together.  But once they leave the desert and come back to “civilization,” they again can take charge of their destinies.  The result is not necessarily pretty.  We see betrayal, thievery, and loss of moral fiber, all fueled by the relentless need to make it to the other side.  It is only Joe (and perhaps Amma) who manages to make it to the end with his integrity intact, but we are left with little to celebrate.  What exactly we are left with in the end is up to each viewer to decide for him or herself.

* * *

Mostépha Djadjam has been involved in the world of film since the late 1970s, mainly as an actor in North African, European, and American productions (most recently in Steven Spielberg’s Munich).  He has also worked as a screenwriter and as assistant director to Mahmoud Zemmouri and Werner Schroeter.

He has made the short film Noir comme blanc (1982) and the documentaries La Langue nue (1986-1996), Queffurus, exposition/impressions (1992), and Tosca à la Bastille (1994).  Frontières/Borders, his first feature film, won top awards at the Namur and the Angers international film festivals.

                                                                                          --Notes by Michael Dembrow

 

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