Arts Centre Vooruit, Ghent, Belgium

“Not Waving, but Drowning”, Elias Grootaers’s first long documentary, observes a number of Indian refugees in a transit centre at the Belgian coast. The film questions neither the current Belgian law, nor the organised human trafficking, but is rather an investigation into the essence of the word ‘illegal’. The caught stowaways/refugees live in the emptiness of uncertainty. Their glazes tell more than their eyes. Who are these people who are regarded by the prosperous society as ghosts rather than as human beings? Grootaers is an informant who, through his well-chosen images and suggestive editing allows the audience to find an answer themselves. The film has its international premiere at the film festival.

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