Movies of Encampment – A Dialogue About Confined Spaces

Imagine living in a confined space, without a feeling of being „home“ and being controlled by institutional actors. With this in mind, two filmmakers tackled the theme of encampment. They joined our recent discussion after the first „On the Mov(i)e“ event, sharing their reflections on the conceptualization of encampment and its subsequent reflexive processes, by-products of filming people with very precarious legal status.

The recent projection of the two movies, ‚Feeling of a Home‚ (directed by Io Chaviara and Michalis Kastanidis) and ‚Bunkers‘ (directed by Anne-Claire Adet), was part of an ongoing CineMigration series, organized and supported by members of the Swiss Network of Young Migration Scholars (SNyMS) and the nccr – on the move.

Both movies were set up in more or less confined places, where asylum seekers often face uncertainty and violence. ‘Feeling of a Home’ sets the scene through border stories in Idomeni, Greece. The audience dives into a conversation among a group of Palestinian friends living in a refugee camp vis-à-vis a delicate reflection of earlier stories of migration, told by the oldest inhabitant of the village. ‘Bunkers’ depicts the suffocating life of an underground shelter where asylum-seekers are crammed into, upon their arrival in Geneva. What follows is a dialogue with the filmmakers.

How do you conceptualize encampment and what are the crucial aspects that you envisioned?

Anne-Claire: My film questions the notion of hospitality for asylum seekers in Geneva. The underground bunkers in Geneva were supposed to be temporary housing, but some people had to stay there for more than a year. My understanding of encampment embodies the notion of shelter, i.e. a place that is supposed to provide protection. The first words of the film are the definition of a home according to a man who has been forced to spend several months in one of the underground bunkers. He says: “Home is where you feel peaceful, secure – like you have your privacy, you have your intimacy – and wonderful place where you can create something”.

The bunkers are no home for asylum seekers but camps. Everyday life in a bunker does not feel secure. Because of the tensions between residents, but also the lack of sleep and freedom of actions, as security guards stand at the entrance and you have to give them your ID when you access. Inside, you cannot cook, you cannot smoke a cigarette, you cannot watch the TV after 10 pm. The restrictions of freedom make the bunkers feel like a prison for the residents, even though they are technically allowed to get in and out at any time.

They are put together for an indefinite time. They lose track of everything. Lights are on nights and days. People don’t know each other but have to share the space, the bunk beds, the shelves for the shoes, the toilets. The bunkers feel outside of time and space, outside the laws. It’s a dystopian world.

Io and Michalis: Idomeni has been a place of transit for people that wanted to continue their route to Northern Europe. At the same time, it has been a place where people needed to create their communities and everyday lives, as they stayed there for months. Only a tiny part was organized by NGOs, the rest was self-organized. The harsh but also vivid world of Idomeni camp reveals a sharp contrast between people who are forced to live under these conditions and the image transmitted by media of immigrants/refugees as passive subjects. People had set up DIY groceries, DIY bakeries, a mosque, a falafel place, kindergarten (…)

What was your motivation to do such a movie? How did it emerge?

Anne-Claire: As a foreigner (French/Italian) living in and out of Switzerland for almost ten years, I always questioned the idea of being a stranger and the meaning of being welcome. Bunkers are part of the landscape for many Swiss people, either for the military or sports events. For many foreigners, the sole existence of these places is defined as the nightmare of living underground.

I became aware of the bunkers when refugees got organized to denounce their living conditions. They wrote an open letter mentioning that, in their countries, only dead people were put under the ground. Then I met asylum-seekers who told me that because some bunkers where under parking slots, they felt as if they counted even less than cars in the social hierarchy. They sensed a feeling of isolation; they were excluded from the society, put in the margins.

The paradox is that Geneva is home to the UN Human Rights Council and many international organizations working on refugee rights, and of course the Geneva Convention. Yet, the city is unable to handle a decent housing for a handful of people and to welcome them.

Io and Michalis: Our documentary is part of broader research we were doing about the history of this specific border between Greece and Macedonia, which despite its short past, is surrounded by a broad variety of stories and narratives from both migrants and local residents. The Idomeni camp was created by people that were stuck in front of the border, waiting for a passage. This time, the immigrants/refugees as the (more recent) “Others” reactivated the narratives of the locals about the border and their own experiences decades ago – from both sides. We decided to go there primarily to observe this relation but during the filming many more aspects came up.

What did you experience while shooting the movie? What were the reactions of those who you depict in the movie?

Anne-Claire: The film is mostly based on archives. I edited images that had been filmed by refugees using their phones. It was important for me to show the places through the eyes of those who had to live there. I knew, I would not get permission to film inside, as several journalists had already been denied access. On the day of the first screening, a group of asylum-seekers was present – more than 300 people. They were very touched, and they felt that for once the Swiss cared about their situation.

Io and Michalis: To be present in a camp instead of reading about it was revealing on several levels. During the shooting and talking to the locals, we realized that no villager – with one exception – has ever visited the camp, which was only 300 meters away. Their relation with their „neighbors“ was intermediated by the media.

The residents of the camp in Idomeni were present during the first public screening in Athens and participated in the Q&A. They were excited to watch the documentary, and they realized that Idomeni has become a „home“ they relate to, in a certain way.

Both documentaries highlight the question of the legitimacy of asylum seekers being present in a new community and show their struggles to create a place of safety. The movie ‘Bunkers’ shows how being forced to leave a home and spatial violence in a new “home” deeply challenges the individuals’ notion of belonging. ‘Feeling of a home’ on the other hand presents contestations and reflections of migrants who create a temporary place to stay and try to reduce the experience of suffering and uncertainty.

“This blog contribution is based on interviews that Lisa Marie Borrelli (HES-SO Valais-Wallis, School of Social Work, Sion) and Christina Mittmasser (Institute of Geography, University of Neuchâtel) conducted with the directors of the short movies “Feeling of a Home” Io Chaviara and Michalis Kastanidis and of “Bunkers”, Anne-Claire Adet.”