Those Who Go Those Who Stay

While her film American Passages (2011) sketched out a panorama of an America filled with contrasts, Those Who Go Those Who Stay takes us on a journey through the identity of a ceaselessly displaced Europe and Mediterranea. Opening with a reference to Ariadne and Theseus, it seems to comprehend the myth from a singular angle, since it raises, above all, the question of the “traces” Theseus left during his journey through the labyrinth. The “labyrinth” of immigration and its traces; those marking the passage of beings in the places they inhabit, and those left by these adopted lands on the populations. From Nigerian asylum-seekers in Sicily to drunken nationalists in Vienna and an Arab musician in Galilee, or very elaborate systems of surveillance and “defence”, the filmmaker composes a stream of consciousness, a mosaic of situations and moments, delicately interwoven with more personal aspects. An essay based on a remarkable montage of complexity and efficiency, in mock random format, offering a certain portrait of a Europe overflowing both with wealth and questions.

Emilie Bujès