Intruders
Director: Reza Serkanian
Cast:Dominique Blanc, Jacques Bonnaffé, David D’ingéo, Christelle Cornil, Koroba Magassouba, Abdel Diack, Salma Tabache, Sebastien Cop
Crew:Writer: Reza Alexandre Serkanian. Producers: Overlap Films In association with: Europe Media Nest & PakFilm
Email:overlapfilms@yahoo.fr
Synopsis
Some foreign minors take refuge on the farm of a caring lady. They are looking for a home but get involved in the story of a broken family. The situation escalates when the lady mysteriously disappears. A family investigation suspects the young migrants, who are hiding something out of fear and ignorance of their rights. During a traditional initiation ceremony, secrets come to light.
About the director
Born in Iran, Reza Serkanian started making short films at the age of 17 and obtained international recognition. After cinema studies in Tehran and Amsterdam, he settled in France in 1998. His first feature, Ephemeral Weddings, was presented at the opening of the ACID in Cannes Film Festival 2011. After the documentary Playmakers in 2020, Intruders is his second fictional feature film.
Filmmaker's note
From documentary to fiction.
For my last documentary “Playmakers”, I met, followed and filmed under-age migrants, most of them from Africa, in order to understand their journey, the conditions of exile, their dreams, their frustrations. I was surprised to see their strength to face adult problems while they were still kids. Through the story of these young foreigners, I rediscovered what I had felt more than twenty years ago, when I arrived in Europe.
Born in Iran, I experienced the shock of cultural uprooting. When I arrived in France, I had the opportunity to share the daily life of a farmers family and to see their struggle to harmonize with nature. I discovered France thanks to these modest people. This experience left a deep impression on me.
Because the rural life has a strong family tradition, this setting seemed obvious to me. The family context evokes the gap, as well as the complicity, between the protagonists. The presence of homeless foreigners within a french broken family creates contradictory and sometimes funny situations.