Safe Harbor

When did the immigrant situation become an international crisis? Anyone who follows the news knows that immigration has been on the rise for the last 20 years or more but, beginning in 2020, the number of fleeing people seeking asylum in Europe, the U.S. and other more affluent countries has tripled and is reaching catastrophic proportions. This situation was addressed in a small but personal way back in 2011 by the great Finnish auteur Aki Kaurismaki in his film Le Havre. Instead of trying to tackle the whole immigration problem, Kaurismaki uses it as the background for a story about Idrissa (Blondin Miguel), a young African immigrant, and how his plight spurs a working-class French community to protect and aid him during his journey.

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