Syrian family in Brittany – “The Barbarians” in the cinema: refugee second choice

The big village, the small town, the provincial community, you like to talk to yourself that here is the world that is secretly afraid of and which should stay outside. Paimpont in the reasonably picturesque Brittany does not have a lot of residents, but can show a considerable percentage of unemployed, alcoholics and depressive more. At least that’s what the committed teacher Joelle claims in the film “Die Barbaren”, who comes to the German cinemas around ten months after the theatrical release in France. Joelle is played by Julie Delpy, who also directed.

Actually, they had been advertised for Ukrainian refugees, but they are “in high demand on the refugee market,” said the mayor and sawmill owner Sébastien (Jean-Charles Clichet), which is why the Bretons with the Syrian family have to do Fayad. The Selenskyi portrait in your accommodation is quickly replaced by a painting of a mermaid. To make matters worse, the Fayads in Damascus, who are not practiced in Paimpont, were: Father Marwan (Ziad Bakri) is an architect, his sister Alma (Rita Hayek), who has lost a leg in the war, doctor Louna (Dalia Naous) is a trained graphic designer, Grandpa Hassan (Helou Fares). And then there is the quiet son Wael and daughter Dina, into whom the village youth immediately falls in love at the bus stop.

The blunt cliché of the “Clash of Cultures” turns out to be “Clash of Qualifications”. The Fayads can be French and halfway, the women are not veiled, so that the greasy shopkeeper Philippe (Mathieu Demy) feels caused to determine against his secretly drinking wife Anne (Sandrine Kiberlain): “The Syrians look like gypsy.” It can be cheerful. The Syrian family is greeted with a wall lubrication on their new home: “Barbarian out!” As is well known, barbarians are everyone who does not speak Greek so well. The arrival of the strangers from the war zone gradually causes the quiet community to let its concealed, oppressed conflicts break up. The depressive picturesque crumbles.

Actually, they had been advertised for Ukrainian refugees, but they are “in demand on the refugee market”, which is why the Bretons have to make do with the Syrian family Fayad.

In the first half of the film, which is divided into acts of Western culture, a camera team accompanies the integration project, so that the parties involved are always trying to provide a good picture. The action is told about interviews, staged visits. Every little disorder of exemplary cosmopolitanism can finally be cut out. At some point, however, the broadcaster is no longer interested in the Fayads and Paimpont, after all they are only one evening story, you have others in a flash. The location is heading after the communist, opponent of vaccination and organic farmer Yves (Albert Delpy) gave the Fayads his small farmhouse so that it doesn’t get the bank and because Louna takes care of the artichokes.

From the beginning, the strangers are a thorn in the side of the plumber Hervé (Lauren Lafitte), because in his opinion he is bad or not good enough, because he is very, very efficient and from here. Online he finds the hold in conspiracy theories that his living environment no longer gives. His frustration is a feast for the People’s Fakers from the Identitarian Movement. What follows is a broken pipe, a broken house, a broken marriage, a broken nose and a difficult birth on the beach.

“The barbarians” is a rather light film with a happy ending despite the fleeing history of the Fayads, which largely works as a comedy. But Julie Delpy, who was primarily known as an actress, has been able to make films for almost 20 years and was nominated for the Oscar for almost 20 years to bring serious questions to the screen: What problems arise when strangers are dependent on each other without being at peace with themselves? How can a warm -hearted will arise to shape a community as a community if the only thing that holds together is that you are never gone? What is reprehensible about the desire to be used?

Certainly there have been much more shocked escape stories in the cinema over the past few years, but “the barbarians” offers a criticism of the business with flight, the instrumental relationship with those in need. The film also shows how people who have to have something to say something to say, hide behind political phrase language, which contradicts their entire appearance and quality. Overall, so: pedagogically valuable.

“The barbarians – welcome to Brittany”: France 2024. Director and book: Julie Delpy. With: Julie Delpy, Sandrine Kiberlain, Laurent Lafitte, Ziad Bakri. 104 min.