Pauline Fonsny

In the heart of the alps, a group of men and women help migrants risking their lives as they cross the Franco-Italian border as they face cold nights and police controls. A visually powerful and stark contrast between the power of solidarity and disobedience.

As night falls on Brussels, Maria remembers her friend Cristianny, now deceased. Like her, Cristianny was Brazilian and an undocumented domestic worker. She recounts the sexual assault her friend endured and the struggle they waged together, hoping for justice. This film is a prayer and a song that, together, rise until dawn. For Cristianny, for Maria, and for all the others.

Semira Adamu arrived in Belgium in 1998 when she fled from Nigeria. Held in a closed detention centre next to Brussels Airport, she died smothered with a cushion during a sixth attempt at forced repatriation. 20 years later, Pauline Fonsny re-enacts this “State assassination” that shook the country and led to the resignation of the Minister of the Interior at the time.