Stories in the media on Scott Manyo or the dutch boy Mauro brought the issue of unaccompanied minors to the attention of the general public. But the boys and girls that end up here all alone, are rarely more than figures in one or the other report.
In their new documentary ‘The art of becoming’ Catherine Vuylsteke and Hanne Phlypo focus on the daily life of three boys. Why is it that the Afghan Fattah wants to get to Europe at all cost? How does the Syrian Kurdish boy Saleh (12) deal with the three year old separation from his parents? And what awaits the guinean Mamadou now that his application for regularization has been turned down? What are these three youngsters dreaming about? What worries them, what makes them strong and what makes them laugh?
Vuylsteke and Phlypo give unaccompanied minors a voice, a face. They portray ordinary youngsters in extraordinary circumstances.
‘The art of becoming’ started from the book ‘The past is a foreign country’, for which Vuylsteke followed eight unaccompanied minors for a whole year. It is the second documentary of these two female directors. In 2010 they make the award winning ‘Silent stories’, which was shown on festivals around the world and was broadcast twice on Flemish TV-station Canvas.
FILMFESTIVAL
The premiere of ‘The art of becoming’ takes place on Sunday September 8th at the Film festival of Ostend. The Brussels premiere follows on the 8th of October in the Brussels Bozar.
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