Eden is West
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| German title | Eden is West |
| Original title | Eden à l'Ouest Paradisos sti disi (Παράδεισος στη Δύση) |
| Country of production | France , Greece , Italy |
| original language | French , Greek , English , German |
| Publishing year | 2009 |
| length | 111 minutes |
| Rod | |
| Director | Constantin Costa-Gavras |
| script | Constantin Costa-Gavras Jean-Claude Grumberg |
| production | Constantin Costa-Gavras Michèle Ray-Gavras Jérôme Seydoux Manos Krezias Salem Brahimi |
| music | Armand Amar |
| camera | Patrick Blossier |
| cut | Yannick Kergoat |
| occupation | |
| |
Eden is West is a feature film by the Greek - French director Constantin Costa-Gavras from 2009. It was shown as the official closing film of the 59th Berlinale in 2009 .
action
The protagonist Elias is on a boat full of refugees near the Greek coast. When the boat is discovered by the coast guard, he saves himself by jumping into the water. He wakes up on a beach that is part of a luxury hotel complex called the Eden Club . Elias disguises himself first as a hotel employee, later as a guest. After several attempts to escape from the facility fail, he is hired as an assistant for his show by a magician from Paris, who goes under the name Nick Nickelby. The magician then gives him his business card. Elias takes this as an invitation and decides to try to get to Paris. In the hotel he also meets Christina, a German tourist, and they start a brief affair.
When the hotel management, looking for illegal immigrants, begins to suspect him, he steals a sailing boat and leaves the hotel complex. He is briefly taken in by a Greek family and then hitchhiked to Paris with no idea of the distance. Two German truck drivers take him to France. He takes a job in an electrical appliance factory, which is home to many immigrants who are hoping to get a permit. When he realizes that this is an empty promise, Elias flees one more time.
In a roundabout way he finally arrives in Paris. He finds the magician and reminds him that he has asked him to come to him when he is in Paris. The magician only notices that Elias has done both, gives him a toy wand and drives away. Elias is dejected and absently points his magic wand at the Eiffel Tower, where the lights happen to be switched on at this moment. When Elias suddenly sees a group of police officers, he is startled and points the wand at them again. The police stop and ignore him. Elias puts his wand in his pocket and walks down the Champs-Élysées.
background
The scenes set in Greece were filmed in Crete . Costa-Gavras, who himself emigrated from Greece to Paris as a young man, worked with this film for the first time in his home country. He compares the film with the Odyssey : “Similar to Odysseus, my hero crosses the sea, tests and storms follow. He fights against the monsters of modernity and overturns the myths of our time. Perhaps the difference is that Odysseus wanted to go back home while he came to make a home for himself. "
Web links
- Eden Is West in the Internet Movie Database (English)
- Film review at outnow.ch
- Film review at online-artikel.de
Individual evidence
- ↑ Press release of February 14, 2009 ( page no longer available , search in web archives ) Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ “Nothing is bigger than the picture” , Der Tagesspiegel , February 7, 2008
- ↑ Report on 3sat.de , January 2009
