Filmmaker Statement

The story came to me when I was volunteering for the non-profit P’tit Dej’ Flandres in Paris, which distributes breakfast to refugees. After spending more than a year with Mamadou Diallo and other young asylum seekers I really became aware of their situation as individuals caught between two worlds: the world of their dreams and desires, like any other young person, and their existence as refugees, a permanent struggle. A friend, an asylum seeker, told me that he had a French girlfriend, and often found himself at parties with her and her friends but that he did not feel totally present because of his situation. This image stayed with me and I decided to make a film. I shaped the script with Mamadou, my lead actor, and other young asylum seekers from the JRS Jeunes non-profit by gathering their ideas and suggestions to accurately portray their world. Casting real asylum seekers for this film was the best way to create an accurate, intimate and subjective portrait of Aly.