"We don’t want you. We just can’t do it." In a classroom, a teacher uses math to explain to a group of newly arrived migrants what their arrival will cost society. The asylum seekers try to refute the figures. They will work, won’t they, and contribute to society? The teacher shatters their illusions: half of them will never find work. In three acts, director and screenwriter Guido Hendrikx reflects on the power relations between Europe and refugees. A blunt film essay in which the teacher receives three groups of migrants, each time adopting a different attitude: dismissive in the first part, then full of empathy and good will in the second, being dispassionate in the third. This brutally direct classroom exercise is enclosed with a buzzing prologue and reflective epilogue, stressing the absurdity of the power relation.
Stranger in Paradise
A film by
Guido Hendrikx
Biography
Guido Hendrikx was born in Eindhoven in 1987 and studied Liberal Arts & Sciences (Utrecht University), Directing Documentary & Screenwriting (Netherlands Film Academy), and Practical Ethics (Utrecht University). His award-winning shorts Escort (2013) and Among Us (2014) were featured at film festivals throughout the world. His feature debut Stranger in Paradise (2016) was the opening film of IDFA 2016. It was theatrically released in cinemas in Italy, the UK, Belgium and The Netherlands and nominated for the European Film Awards: best documentary. Guido Hendrikx wrote several screenplays (short, mid-length, feature) in collaboration with other directors (Ena Sendijarevic, a.o.) and worked as a curator for the video department of The Correspondent. “Camerapersona’ is his newest work.
Filmography
- Camerapersona – 2021 – feature documentary
- Stranger in Paradise – 2016 – feature documentary
- Among Us – 2014 – short documentary
- Escort – 2013 – short documentary
