Stranger in Paradise

Guido Hendrikx Nederland 72 min.

On an island in the Mediterranean Sea, near the European border, a group of refugees settles in a classroom where a teacher (Valentijn Dhaenens) awaits them. A threefold welcoming speech unfolds: initially dismissive and sobering, then full of empathy and good will, and finally full of complex rules and incomprehensible procedures they will have to comply with.

DOCVILLE 2017
Outside the dox

Stranger in Paradise tries to find a balance between fact and fiction and investigates the power relations between Europe and migrants. Wir Schaffen Das. Or will we not? And at what cost and conditions? The blunt but intelligent approach of director Guido Hendrikx is rather confronting and resembles the work of Renzo Martens, Enjoy Poverty: Episode III, also opener of the International Documentary Film Festival in Amsterdam at that time.