Society & Economy

Illegal traveler : Grrr! Europe!

How do we live in Europe? What do we really know about our ´fellow countrymen´? With its partners, Franco-German channel ARTE inaugurated an ambitious collection of twenty documentaries which explore the lives of various inhabitants of the European Union. Be they squatters, ministers, farmers or holidaymakers, they were followed by young film-makers from their country equipped only with a basic digital camera. These are entertaining portraits which both arouse our curiosity and encourage reflection, sometimes with a provocative and ironic tone.


We follow the fortunes of a resourceful young man, determined to leave his Soviet roots for a better life in the West. Yuli is from Ukraine, but he has managed to obtain a Latvian passport and a tourist visa for Germany, valid for three months. To the German authorities, he claims to be an orphaned Chechen refugee with no papers. He claims he is 15, although he is in fact 22. In accordance with European law, the Germans are obliged to give him accommodation, food and education, while his asylum claim is dealt with. He thus finds himself in a children´s residence. The State gives him 220 euros pocket money per month. But Yuli is disillusioned with the EU. It is not what he thought it would be, but he loves traveling, and wants to jump at every chance to see how life is lived elsewhere in Europe. The Schengen agreements, signed by all the member states except Great Britain and Ireland, allow people to circulate freely within the Union. Although he claims to be a refugee, he still has a passport and a visa. He decides to go and have a look around Paris, then phones a friend in the Canary Islands to find out if things are better out there than in Germany. His visa is nearing expiry, and so he must return to Poland and see if he can obtain a new visa for Germany. This he manages to do, and arrives in Berlin in the company of a group of Mongolian immigrants, who shoplift vodka and sell it in the street. He gets enough money together to take a flight to the Canary Islands, still part of the EU, and there he meets up with his friend Tolya, who puts him in the picture. He finds a job as a handyman in the employ of a rich German lady, living high in the hillsÂ… will he stay or will he go? And where will his next destination be?