Dorathen Better Late Then Never

CrawlerChunky In truth, there is barely enough story here to make a film.

Taraparain Tells a fascinating and unsettling true story, and does so well, without pretending to have all the answers.

FirstWitch A movie that not only functions as a solid scarefest but a razor-sharp satire.

3xHCCH I admit that it was the director's name that made me choose this film from the selection of international films offered by Qantas in their on-board entertainment system on my flight home.The initial sequence of illegal immigrants on a boat was haunting as they ripped their identification cards and threw them into the water. As authorities came to arrest them, we meet Elias who dove into the sea to escape. He was washed ashore on a nudist beach resort. And from then you know that things would turn for the ludicrous.It is a cat and mouse game as Elias tries to find his was to Paris to search for a magician who told him to look for him there. On that flimsy premise, the movie became a road trip where Elias encounters and interacts with people who had various problems. Elias was always just the witness of events, but we never find out anything about his past. We do not even know from which country he came from! I kept on watching the film because I wanted to see how Elias would finally fare when he reaches Paris. However when he does meet the magician in Paris, the expected grand finale of Elias' exodus was nowhere to be seen. The crazy visual gimmick that Costa Gavras did on the Eiffel Tower in the ending even made the whole movie look stupid.

Likes_Ninjas90 Elias (Riccardo Scamarcio) is an illegal immigrant trying to sneak into France by boat. Yet when the boat is spotted by the coast guard Elias jumps off the side of the boat and is separated from his friend. He washes up on a resort in France and then has to sneak around the island impersonating workers. He eventually meets a magician who briefly offers him work in a stage show and also tells him to come and find him in Paris. What follows is a road trip as Elias has to rely on the kindness of strangers to help him arrive at the city of lights.The opening scenes to this film, directed by Costa Gavras, onboard an immigrant boat, are easily the best of the entire film. The imagery of the immigrants literally ripping up their identities and tossing their papers into the ocean is powerful and symbolic. Yet the journey that follows after this is a rather uninteresting one. This is not a highly dramatic or emotive examination of migration but more the equivalent of a chase movie or a road trip. Much of the film revolves around Elias stealing people's clothes and then being chased by police. Once you realise that the film has very little to say beyond this in its narrative, the monotony of these scenes becomes clear. Although the visualisation of poverty in the film is sometimes apparent, it is treated shallowly.There are several bizarre moments in this film that do not seem to fit with the initial concept of immigration. The subplot involving a magician is by far the film's most tactless idea. Why Elias would volunteer to be in a stage show when he does not want to draw attention to himself is uncertain and the ending, which involves the magician giving out a magic wand, is also improbable and out of sorts with the gritty realism of the opening scenes. A moment too where French people gather in a community watch to hunt down illegal immigrants, as Elias is cornered and sexually assaulted, remains utterly bizarre.As a road movie the film fails because of the lack of character development. We never learn anything about Elias, such as where he came from. Thus it is difficult to know what he has experienced before and what is new to him on this journey. With very little dialogue it is difficult for his character to reflect on these events. We needed care about his character more. It feels like a more hollow film when compared to more sophisticated examples of the genre, such as The Motorcycle Diaries. A more conventional aspect of a road trip genre is engaging in a number of quirky characters that can affect ones journey. There are few relationships in this film. The most memorable one is Elias' intimate affair with a woman who says that she has a family somewhere. Yet this has very little impact on the remainder of the film once it fades.Eden is West is not a particularly memorable or interesting film, just one that is occasionally brought to life by brief moments of action. As a road movie it suffers from its lack of development and memorable characters. What seems like an initially serious and personal film deteriorates into something that is hollow and one dimensional.

kosmasp The main character isn't only innocent and naive, but he also is portrayed as good natured as it gets. Now you could argue if that really is possible or if it really works story-wise. But you have to suspend your disbelief here early on. The movie is jumping from one scene to the next, changing many locations and therefor never really builds an emotional connection with the viewer. While the segments are nice and good, the whole experience isn't as good as the sum of it's parts.It gets even more irritating, when almost every cliché get's played out in the story, letting the main character go through every possible roller-coaster ride an (illegal) immigrant can go through. Unfortunately it doesn't mix as well as one might think (pace and rhythm is all over the place and not in a good sense).

Gecq This is a very well written tale about the odyssey of an illegal immigrant into the European Union. Our hero arrives by boat on the shores of Greece, hides in a Luxury tourist resort called "Eden Resort" and after many adventures there travels to Paris to meet a magician with whom he made acquaintance in the tourist club. We witness the adventures of Elias, our hero, only to see through his eyes the different approaches of Europeans to illegal immigrants living and struggling in their midst. Excellent camera work, brilliant performance by Riccardo Scamarcio, masterful narration by Costa-Gavras. I recommend watching this strongly.