Stranger in Paradise

Migration is high on the political agenda; less or more migration and whether to have an refugee center in your community? We all have an opinion about it. Is Europe a kind of fortress that is almost impossible to enter and would it be better to invest in reception in your own region? Or could the world's most prosperous countries do quite a bit more for migrants and have we become far too strict in recent years? What are the effects of our opinions on the migrant? How does the person behind the migrant experience this pushing and pulling of Europe? As a migrant, can you hold out hope in the harsh reality of not being welcome? 

At the intersection of documentary and fiction, the film Stranger in Paradise explores the power relationship between Europe and migrants. In a classroom in Sicily, just behind the walls of Fortress Europe, newly arrived migrants are taught by a teacher with insane traits. One moment he mercilessly repels them, the next he anoints them in his arms. Does his ambiguous personality symbolize the way Europe treats migrants? With an introduction by dr. Mieke Kox.

Dr. Mieke Kox is assistant professor at the Erasmus School of Law and received her doctorate in February on how laws and regulations are experienced by people without the right of residence. Are they still morally justified or does hopelessness take its toll?

Stranger in Paradise I 2017 I directed by Guido Hendrikx I 72 mins.

This programme is organized by Studium Generale.