VIDEO: ‘To Stay Illegally or To Die” « from AFRICA IS A COUNTRY

"To Stay Illegally or To Die"

March 19, 2010 · 3 Comments

I am not sure about the ethics involved in making this film or how truthful the experiences of British journalist Sorious Samura are, but “Living with Illegals,” his 50 minute documentary (made for British television) is depressing viewing. To investigate undocumented migration from Africa to the European Union, Samura (who is originally from Sierra Leone and made films about the civil war there) decides to become an undocumented migrant.

 He freely mixes with migrants in Morocco, Spain, France and the UK (the final destination for most of them) and puts his life at risk: He sleeps rough, begs, trusts smugglers, and hides in trucks to cross borders.  Samura is definitely pro-immigration. And after a while you root for these men. (He does not interview women migrants although you some women migrants once in the film.)  In the end, you root for the migrants.At times he can’t get his head around why these migrants risk their lives for menial jobs and loneliness.  One tells him: “I am ready to do any kind of job. If I have to I’ll wash the toilets, bathrooms or train stations and I’ll be very happy. Forget I am a graduate.”

Later a Sudanese migrant who has been deported three times from the UK and who Samura grows close to, tells the filmmaker: “I have no choice. What do you prefer? To stay illegally or to die?”

Sean Jacobs

 

2

 

0
Rate This

 

Quantcast

 

Categories: film
Tagged: , , , , , ,

3 responses so far ↓

  • ekapa // March 19, 2010 at 5:23 pm | Reply

    You are right Sean: no matter how much Samura cut corners, ethical and otherwise, it’s still very depressing. I had the same feeling about the civil war documentaries he made – questions about accuracy but conviction about the overall picture. I recently watched a documentary on Zimbabwean illegal immigrants in South Africa that raised similar questions of ethics and accuracy but was still on the whole right about the overall picture.

  • Justin Kraus // March 21, 2010 at 12:19 am | Reply

    Rather than depressing I found this documentary inspiring. These brave men are sacrificing everything in order to pursue their dream. The hardships that they are willing to endure put the rest of us to shame. In many ways I am envious of their passion.

  • ekapa // March 21, 2010 at 11:30 am | Reply

    It’s depressing that all that people with all that bravery and passion are forced by circumstances to leave their homelands to eke out a marginal existence in other countries. The effects of the loss of all that drive and talent to their home countries is incalculable.

 

2 responses
I am teaching an African American culture class which begins with an overview of the histories of Africans. As I contemplate showing the class this documentary, I am overwhelmed by "man's inhumanity to man." The destructive images of Africans in popular culture have created so much division that I wonder if showing this documentary would help my students to understand any kind of contemporary concept of a Pan African coalition endorsed by the great Malcolm X?

Back to this documentary, in my opinion it gives an educated viewer much food for thought.

That's rough and tough! He is a warrior...