En France

A short film made by a class from a vocational high school, En France sets out the menu, should it be necessary, of the extent to which ID photos, passports, and a fortiori DNA tests, are a form of identification through negation of the individuals. The idea behind the film is simple: a table laid out with the pupils’ treasured objects… recent or not so recent photos, in colour or black and white, of parents, friends, family celebrations, a first car, a notebook with texts, photos, drawings, postcards, letters from dear ones, drawings inspired by calligraphy, a school report book, the contents of a handbag, a hairbrush, a small mirror, makeup, a passport, plans of a house in the home country, a flat here, etc. A medley of objects reflecting a rich personal, and sometimes dramatic, history, deposited inside them and which they hide away while carrying it on. These children are all from immigrant backgrounds, but their world within is not geographical, neither is it the result of a double culture, it is a fragile shell of memories, which they inhabit and which links them to the world. (Yann Lardeau)