Eldorado, the documentary by Ruy Abreu, Loic Tanson and Thierry Besseling about the Portuguese in Luxembourg, finally comes to the screen. A movie to discover.
Eldorado , from the trio Rui Abreu, Loic Tanson and Thierry Besseling, is an amazing film. A documentary about Portuguese immigration to the Grand Duchy and follows four characters over several years.
The filmmakers offer surprising testimonies, honest doubts, hopes, and some stunning images — in the classroom, for example — and they also provide some lyrical imaginations that give the film a beautiful lightness. We can apologize for reproducing some images, however Eldorado It remains a movie to watch. Meeting with managers.
Le Quotidien: The film is the result of seven years of work. Does it match your initial desire?
Roy Abreu: We didn't have a pre-set idea. It is a documentary filmed across time, and the idea above all was to follow these destinies day by day, in a very flexible way. When choosing the characters, we obviously had an idea of where they could go, but it was their lives that made the film what it is.
The film is a creative documentary. What was it like directing actors who, of course, are not professionals?
Terry Bessling: In fact, what we did were simulated situations. We brought people together in the same place, and were able to guide them on topics for discussion – topics we had identified in their lives previously. We didn't invent anything, we just formatted their words. Obviously we chose the themes: school, father's absence, integration, family… but again, it is the characters that guide the themes that the film deals with.
Let's talk about the characters. When choosing them, she did not avoid some clichés: the worker, the cleaning lady, the drugged prisoner…
Loic Tanson: These are not clichés, they are facts…
OK, but there are also Portuguese architects, CEOs and journalists in Luxembourg… and they are not represented.
Roy Abreu: The fact is that many, if not the majority, of Portuguese do at least manual labour. Specifically, we wanted to show, behind the clichés of José the worker and María the cleaning lady, who is the person behind the work that they do, interview these people, tell these lives, these stories, these struggles, their emotions…and then these people are People who are rarely represented in cinema, and we wanted to give them visibility.
How did you convince them to talk about these problems: prison, the absence of a father… which we do not necessarily want to talk about in front of the camera?
Terry Bessling: Everyone has a story. These people want to take responsibility for their life's journey. After that, I must say that we spent almost five years with them. They knew us and trusted us.
What conclusions about Portuguese immigration should we draw from the film?
Loic Tanson: no one. We are not at all claiming to have made a social film. It is a human adventure that the film tells.
Anyway, the documentary ends in a dream-like way with a kind of ballet. May I remind you that everyone has dreams?
Roy Abreu: There you have it, a worker, a cleaning lady, a young man a little lost, who also has dreams, a desire for another place, for freedom. We wanted to give this opening to the film, which until then had been firmly grounded in reality and everyday life.
Terry Bessling: It is also a liberation from their manual gestures. A way to give them a part of their imagination and dreams. Especially since in these gestures of action, whether in the cleaning gestures made by cleaners or those made by men working on construction sites, there is something very beautiful. It doesn't have to be visible at first glance, which is why we wanted to highlight it.
Pablo Chimente
El Dorado: The Hopes and Disillusionment of Four Portuguese-Speaking Immigrants in Luxembourg
“Luxembourg is located in the heart of Europe, a small country whose population is made up of 46% foreigners, most of them of Portuguese origin. This documentary tells the story of four Portuguese-speaking immigrants of the new generation.
It is a longitudinal observation of the hopes and disappointments of Fernando, a middle-aged job seeker, Carlos, an ex-convict seeking rehabilitation when faced with fatherhood, Jonathan, a teenager struggling in school and searching for a professional identity, and Isabel. , an estranged woman haunted by a difficult past.
Over the course of three years, the hopes and disappointments of four Portuguese-speaking immigrants collide in Luxembourg, considered by some to be an El Dorado. »
Eldorado (Luxembourg, 83 minutes) by Ruy Abreu, Loic Tanson and Thierry Bisselling. Inside.
