The 58th Karlovy Vary International Film Festival: Still the Defence of Women and Immigrants

When writing about the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival, the Czech media seem to be primarily interested in the attending celebrities, in who walks on the red carpet and what gowns the female international actors are wearing.But, as I have mentioned in my review of this festival last year, the festival also has a different image, which is much more important.Karlovy Vary has an excellent dramaturgy and for years has been able to present the best of world cinema from the last year.Consistently, its programme seems to be quite subversive, in conflict with the prevailing ethos of the contemporary Czech Republic.As the entertaining Scottish film director, Mark Cousins, apparently a friend of the festival for many years, said when introducing his film about the forgotten British painter Wilhelmina Barns-Graham, 'These days, when right wingers want us to hate people who are different, we really do need the tolerance of the Karlovy Vary film festival' .He could not have said it any better.Yes, the Czech Republic is still obsessed with its anti-immigrant, islamophobic xenophobia.And yet, as usual, Karlovy Vary featured a number of films highlighting the plight of refugees trying to get into Europe.French director Boris Lejkin's film (The Story of Souleymane/L'histoire de Souleymane, 2024) follows the life of a young asylum seeker in Paris, a refugee from Guinea.In Paris, he earns a minimum wage by delivering food to customers on his bicycle.It is brutal.Because he has no residence permit, he can only work by having another immigrant 'sell' him his delivery account, and in return, the other immigrant takes more than half of his earnings, leaving the boy with just a few euros a month.The camera systematically follows him on his manic bike rides through Paris.Inevitably, Souleyman is hit by a car at an intersection one day; fortunately, only his bike is damaged.Souleyman prepares for an interview with the French Interior Ministry for his asylum claim, taking advice from another immigrant who provides him with a false story of his oppression and imprisonment in Guinea.He asks to be paid for this, but Souleyman is not given his wages and is beaten up instead.During an interview at the Ministry of Interior, it turns out that Souleyman is telling a fictitious story that the official says she has heard many times before: an immigrant counseling refugees is selling them the same story over and over again!The clerk asks Souleyman to tell her why he is really in France.