The Shelter
L’Abri
DIRECTOR: Fernand Melgar COUNTRY: Switzerland YEAR: 2014 LANGUAGE(S): French SUBTITES: English RUNNING TIME: 101 min
SECTION: International Forum 2015
SYNOPSIS
Every winter in Lausanne, a disused bunker functions as a night shelter for homeless people. There is a limited number of beds and those who don’t make it on time have to spend the night on the streets.
Fernand Melgar is a master of observation: His camera concentrates on the activity in front of and in the night shelter. There is plenty of red tape and strict rules. A handful of employees have to decide who is allowed in and who isn’t. But how can such decisions on whether people should be given some hot soup or told to stay in the bitter cold be made? Those who work in the shelter are caught between sympathy, cynicism and frustration, while those who are turned away are caught between despair and aggression. Melgar’s greatest merit is that he shows with great precision what the consequences of social indifference and lack of solidarity are in a society that refuses to give even the bare minimum to people. The losers are those on society’s edge – refugees, Roma families, maladjusted people.
FERNAND MELGAR
Born in 1961 in Tangier into a family of Spanish anarchist exiles, Fernand Melgar was clandestinely snuck into Switzerland by his parents in 1963. In the early 80s, he and his friends founded Le Cabaret Orwell, a mecca of underground culture in western Switzerland, followed by the internationally famous rock venue La Dolce Vita. Following a screening of experimental films, he turned himself into a self-taught independent film director and producer. In 1985 he joined the production company Climage, with which he has remained a faithful collaborator, producing over 20 well-regarded documentaries on the subjects of immigration and identity. In 2008, his documentary THE FORTRESS (NIHRFF 6) won the Golden Leopard at the Locarno Film Festival. SPECIAL FLIGHT (NIHRFF-Weekender 2012) received more than thirty international awards, including the Prix Europa. THE SHELTER is his latest film.
FILMOGRAPHY
Performances at the Musée Deutsch (1983), The First Day – The Arrival (2000), Exit (2005), Die Festung (2008), Special Flight (2011), The World is like that (2013), The Shelter (2014)
PRODUCER: Fernand Melgar CAMERA: Fernand Melgar EDITORS: Karine Sudan, Ruis Pires
PRODUCTION: Climage WORLD SALES: Maëlle Guenegues, CAT & DOCS