Yu

Exiled to France, Yu, a young Burmese nurse, has applied to the French Office for the Protection of Refugees and Stateless Persons for refugee status. Waiting for the decision, she lives in fear… she is fearful of returning to Burma where she risks jail, fearful that her application will be refused, fearful for her currently precarious situation. Although France is a land of shelter, full of hopes, it scarcely keeps its promises: metro billboards and television glorifying the dynamic image of modern alpha woman narrow down the young exile’s horizons, as they deepen the divide between their world and her actual situation and oppose an insurmountable barrier to her desire to assimilate. As time goes by, Yu sees her world shrinking. Burma is receding but France is no nearer. Cutting ties with home does not suffi ce to open the gates of France. Against adversity, Yu has few, but precious means: an association that helps her to put together her dossier, the blessing of a bonze, a lucky-charm bag containing the snippet of the robe of a monk from her village and a medallion bearing the image of a lion, the emblem of her birth date. (Yann Lardeau)