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FESTIVALS Switzerland

Melgar brings the “direct cinema” of Special Flight to Gijón

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There are films that remain imprinted in viewers’ minds long after being watched. Swiss documentary Special Flight [+see also:
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, by director Fernand Melgar, the son of Spanish immigrants, is one of those films. And to achieve this, he hasn’t used dramatic denunciations, a moving soundtrack or great narrative climaxes, but he does it through a low-key approach and “direct cinema”, something that the director has repeated on several occasions, to let viewers reach their own conclusions.

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Switzerland, the cradle of human rights, the Geneva Convention and the Red Cross, is also an example, at times admirable, at others abominable, of direct democracy. The will of the people is turned into law. This seemingly honourable system can, however, give rise to monstrous situations, especially in an era like the current one, in which the fear of others has become a phobia. Switzerland has 28 prisons whose inmates have committed no crimes other than not having managed to regularise their situation in the country after years of working. Their inevitable fate is to leave the country. In the meantime, they live for months (up to 24) in these pleasant-looking enclosed spaces, where they lack nothing, except their freedom.

However, although it looks specifically at the system in the Swiss Confederation, where illegal immigrants who don’t wish to leave the country on a commercial flight do so, gagged, on a ”special flight” (whence the film’s title), the documentary reflects an alarming trend seen right across Europe: the western world is increasingly resembling a huge prison that incarcerates both ordinary employees and prisoners.

Special Flight isn’t an easy film to digest. It has chosen the least brutal prison of all, where employees and inmates get on well, chat and talk. With a steady pace, and without any great jolts, the absurdity of the situation is revealed in all its complexity before the audience, who can only guess what moral effects a situation like this can leave on society.

Although it doesn’t try to provoke controversy, Special Flight, which was recently shown at the 49th Gijón International Film Festival, has been surrounded by controversy since its world premiere at the Locarno Film Festival, where it was described by Portuguese producer Paulo Branco as “fascist”. Later on, Switzerland’s far-right party asked for it not to be banned in schools. This low-key film, produced by Climage, has garnered strong reactions from quite a few people.

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(Translated from Spanish)

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