Olivier Masset-Depasse Director of ’Illégal’

In Illégal, you filmed in a refugee centre. It’s a tough topic to work on. How did you manage not to fall into a complex and heavy debate?

At first, like everybody, I only knew that such centres existed. Then words like “prison for innocents” and the fact that women and children are kept in jail pricked my curiosity. I started approaching the subject and asking questions to finally investigate more deeply. A journalist and a jurist from the Human Rights League took part in the process and we collected illegal immigrants’ testimonies. I didn’t want to make a left-wing feature; I wanted my film to be as fair as possible. So we entered these centres several times, I tried to interview most of the actors who are strongly linked to the domain, like “behind enemy lines”… a real reporter’s work. Then I had to figure out how to make a film out of this material. I really wanted it to be subjective. You could compare [the film] to a psychological thriller with a social critique background. A thriller experienced by those people who live permanently enclosed by fear.

The female guardian expresses doubts about her uneasy situation: how to combine work and a clean conscience, when you are keeping innocents confined…

At every layer of the system, from the guardians to the transfer police, everyone is stuck in such a position. That was the very point of my interviews with the guardians: showing the reasons and origins, why one would have that kind of job. In the end, you always get the job that you’re given.

You also show police violence behind the scenes. Are you expecting any political feedback as a result of your field investigations?

I had the opportunity to see a recorded expulsion. We can admit that everything you see in the movie happened at least once in real life. I am not asserting that every expulsion happens this way. Only a few do, but still too many.

Anne Coesens did an awesome job playing a Russian immigrant. Could you tell us more about her performance?

At first she was a bit scared to assume such a character, and we can easily understand. She did not see why I demanded a Belgian actress should do the job. Actually, I saw several movies on the topic of immigration: Welcome (Philippe Lioret), In This World (Michael Winterbottom) and others, which were mostly about Pakistanis, Africans, or Kurds… But there are a lot of Russian asylum-seekers and residence permit-seekers in Belgium; also I wanted the identification to be as strong as possible, without any ethnic barriers. I liked the idea of a Russian immigrant, white and much closer to us. And because I strongly believe in unconsciousness in cinema, I wanted a local actress to take the role. She was trained by two Russian coaches for a five month period. She had to learn the dialogues by phonetics, as she certainly didn’t have time to learn to read in Russian (laughs). In the end she proved to be a good pupil, and as a result there are more Russian dialogues in the film than initially planned.

Talking about dialogues, with Illégal we can observe a real progress in your writing the general credibility of the film…

Indeed, I try to learn from my previous mistakes. Obviously, the first feature is always about dazzling. Here, the theme required much more humility. I tried never to run before the subject, I had to support it. The subject can help, for sure.

Illégal has a very nervous pace. This seems to be one of your stylistic prints…

Indeed, I am a heavy cutter. What I think I achieved with Illégal is that we don’t perceive the movie to be fast and furious, but there is a real tension from beginning to end. Talking about rhythm, I’m inspired by directors such as Paul Greengrass (Bloody Sunday, United 93) and Iñárritu (21 Grams, Babel). This punchy cinematic style was completely compatible with the thriller idea I wanted to infuse in my film.

By Olivier Croughs