A Season in France (12A)
Directed by Mahamat-Saleh Haroun

WITH a great deal of compassion, Mahamat-Saleh Haroun’s gentle and slow-burning drama highlights the plight of refugees and asylum-seekers in France. But it could apply to anywhere in the EU.

It tells the story of Abbas (Eriq Ebouaney) a high school teacher in the Central African Republic, who’s escaped from his war-torn country to Paris with his two young children. There, he works at a fruit and veg market as he waits to hear whether he has been granted political asylum.

In the meantime French woman Carole — a phenomenal Sandrine Bonnaire — who he has been seeing, gives him and his family emotional help and support. She herself is the daughter of Polish immigrants

Ebouaney delivers a nuanced and powerhouse performance as Abbas, who’s battling his demons and is haunted by the ghost of his late wife who was killed during their escape and who appears to him periodically.

A proud and highly educated man who left a good job, he now undergoes humiliation as he is forced to work cash in hand and move his children from one place to another.

His close friend Etienne (musician Bibi Tanga), also an intellectual and former teacher, works as a security guard and lives in a shack which is subsequently burnt down by racists. As Abbas tells him “our dignity is all we have left. Don’t lose it.”

Haroun, from Chad, but now living in France, contrasts the humanity and kindness shown by Carole to Abbas and his family in taking them into her own home with the cold and clinical treatment they receive at the hands of the authorities to whom he is just another number.

One of the film’s most poignant moments in the film comes when Abbas and his son and daughter celebrate Carole’s birthday with presents, cake and songs. He refuses to open a letter about his immigration application so they can all enjoy a carefree and fun time.

When he finally does, the news isn’t good. Etienne finds himself in a similar position but, in his case, there’s a shocking development.

This is a very powerful and heartbreaking film which brings home the ordeal of immigrants in a simple but effective way as it questions and condemns Europe’s handling of the recent refugee crisis.