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Presentation

QUALIFIED FOR THE MAGRITTE DU CINEMA 2017

BEST EDITING AWARD : Bridges International Film Festival – Greece
BEST ACTOR AWARD : Baptiste Moulart – Socially Relevant Film Festival New York – USA

OFFICIAL SELECTIONS :
– International Film Festival of Human Rights – Uruguay
– Festival Internacional de Cine por los Derechos Humanos- Colombia
– CLAM Festival Internacional de Cinema Solidari – Spain
– Human District – Serbia
– Human Rights Film Festival (Bcn / NY / Paris) – France
– Cyprus International Film Festival – Cyprus
– COMMFFEST Film & Arts Festival – Canada
– Un Film per la pace Festival – Italy
– Korea Indie and expat film festival – South Korea
– Derechos Humanos / Muestra de Cine – Costa Rica

Synopsis : Alex, a young Belgian, runs away from his family problems to rejoin Olivia in Barcelona, a Spanish girl he just met at a party. He arrives in a militant squat shared by young Europeans and illegal immigrants. To stay with Olivia, he will have to learn about commitment and to become an activist. At the risk of putting himself in danger and to move away from his family …

I am NOT from Barcelona is a film by Stéphane Leclercq & Muriel Allart

Avec Baptiste Moulart, Teresa Peréz Caballero, Santiago León Cuéllar and Alessandro Demcenko

Produced by Mutation Production

Country : Belgium
Locations : Spain & Belgium
Language : french & english
Subtitles : french, english, greek or spanish
Lenght : 83 minutes
Sound : Stereo

Note d’intention : In Europe today, what has become of our capacity to be affected by how another person lives? What are the various “occupy” groups from around the world trying to tell us?

Making a commitment or joining a protest movement are not inborn human qualities but reactions that each and every one of us may have when confronted with a situation we live or discover via an individual, an organization or the media. Some of us, confronted by difficulties or hardship, feel defeated or overwhelmed. Others find means to fight back. In “I am NOT from Barcelona,” Alex is given the opportunity to join some of these resistors on a journey that exposes him to alternative views of the world and eventually will transform him.

Commitments may be born out of a need to rescue yourself or those close to you from an intolerable situation. They also might stem from a capacity to be outraged by a situation with no immediate impact on your life. Alex is twenty years old and like most of us, he is preoccupied with personal problems. Fortunately, he maintains a passion and a desire to live. Unsure of where to direct his energy, Alex, fully capable of being moved by his encounters with others and of being touched by what he discovers, finds an urgency to act growing within him.

But how, and in what, should he invest himself? How can a person opt for a certain form of activism and know that his or her choice is truly useful, not just another claim passed through a global information flux? Some situations simply appear too unjust or insurmountable, whether they stem from personal or social ills. What are we willing to do, to create, in order to make change? Many people, young people around Alex’s age, live in an alternate Europe running parallel to Alex’s. They live in fear and with the awareness that it is impossible to create for themselves a brighter future because they are illegal immigrants, denied their rights and access to healthcare. And Alex, having spent too long waiting on the sidelines, can no longer ignore them.
Resolved to take on a contemporary issue that is fully European, this film invites you to experience with Alex the power contained in certain encounters. We introduce you to meet the activists, Olivia, Santiago, and Leo, and invite you to reflect on whether their actions are shortsighted or praiseworthy. And to follow them into the places they live and the alternative lifestyles they lead, either by choice or out of necessity.