24/05/2002 - In De l'autre côté - On The Other Side Belgian filmmaker Chantal Akerman takes a look at illegal immigration to America

What´s on the other side of the world? Beyond the carefully protected borders of the World´s richest countries? That is the that question Belgian documentary-maker and the director of literally dozens of films, Chantal Akerman asked herself after 35 years in the business. Her answer is De l'autre côté, screened out of competition in Cannes.
Akerman went to the U.S.-Mexican border to report on illegal immigration. «I´d read about a number of rich ranch owners in Arizona who, breaking just about every law there is, actively hunt the immigrants who to transit the Americans´ property.»
Akerman´s film completes a sort of trilogy made up of D´Est and South and is a lingering look at some of the most desolate land in the world. Akerman focuses on the faces of the families of those poor people who succumbed to the desert that separates two countries, but especially two distinct ways of life. «These borders must be seen from both sides. The Americans need illegal immigrants to do menial and labour-intensive jobs but they are also scared of this horde of illegal aliens.» The same is true of Europe. «But it´s accentuated in north America because of the deep rooted violence that distinguishes relations between these two peoples.»

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(Translated from Italian)