DEPORTADO

How can you put down roots in the land of your roots? This seemingly paradoxical question applies to the expelled from the United States, where they have lived as American residents sometimes from their early childhood, and who suddenly rediscover the land of their Azorean ancestors due to “double penalty”. Deportado explores the consequences of a 1996 change in US law that authorises the automatic expulsion of prisoners, even though they are hardly informed of this when the prosecution encourages them to plead guilty. Yet, Nathalie Mansoux never goes down the path of the argumentative documentary. The force of her film lies in the staggering contrast between the open, almost idyllic landscapes of the Portuguese archipelago and the absence of a horizon offering the former detainees a future. A tourist guide, “energy workshop” and antidepressants galore at home, everything seems programmed to make them forget the invisible bars. But the emptiness recreated by the framing and editing along with the moments of suspended time that intimate their mental indolence gives us an acutely physical sense of the archaic nature of this expulsion. Deprived of the family network that was present when they were in prison, Deportado‘s Luso-Americans are painfully reminiscent of the outcasts of Ancient Greece. (Charlotte Garson)