Monday, June 27, 2011

Illegal 2010

Illegal (2010)

    A hardworking and contentious former French teacher from Russia has been living in Belgium for 8 years.  She earns her living as a cleaning woman and takes care of her 14 year old son.  Her worst fear is realized when she is stopped by the police and she is without the proper papers.
    This is a tough movie to watch, twice I looked to see how much longer the run time would be since I felt like I was incarcerated in a detention center with her.  For a long time she won't tell her name or country of origin and she had burned off her fingerprints on an iron.  Finally, fearing being sent to jail for 2 years for forged papers, she gives her friend's name but she didn't know her friend applied for asylum in Poland.  This means she must be sent back to Poland to process with that country. 

    The worst part of being sent back is the people taking you to the plane, if you make an uproar and they have to put you back in the transfer vehicle, the men cover you with a mattress and beat you.  Legal or illegal, people still have fundamental rights and do not deserve a severe beating from 5 men!  3 1/2* (I liked this movie)

90 min, Drama, directed by Olivier Masset-Depasse with Anne Coesens, Alexandre Gontcharov, Christelle Cornil.

Note:  not rated by Blockbuster, imdb 6.8 out of 10, 70% critic 41% audience on Rotten Tomatoes.

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