The Blue House

In the heart of the Jungle refugee camp in Calais, France, the house’s blue walls and thatched roof stand out sharply. Designed to recall its builder’s native land, the “blue house on the hill” is the work of Alpha, an artist who has lived in exile for many years. When Senegalese-Mauritian filmmaker Hamedine Kane meets up with him, they naturally trade stories about their home village, where everything has changed since they left. Confidences shared between friends and apparently mundane conversations form the backdrop to this portrait of migrant life. Belying its modest trappings, the film is a powerful antidote to clichés on the topic. Passionate, funny, sometimes enraged, Alpha has managed to create a living space where we see only passages, while laying bare the exploitation of the stereotype of the migrant. A lesson in humanism. (Bruno Dequen)

La Maison Bleue