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Not Waving, But Drowning

Directed by Elias Grootaers, 2009

Main Info

Documentary, Belgium
53’, DVCam, 4:3, stereo, colour & B/W

Synopsis

Not Waving, But Drowning materialises the experience of Indian refugees during their arrest and detention by the harbour police in Zeebruges, Belgium. Within the tense, haunted context of the harbour and the seaside, and together with them, we slowly lose all sense of time and place. Without investigating their past or their future, the human traffic organisations or the Belgian legislation, the film transgresses into the timelessness in which our society imprisons people without papers. This subtle analysis of human exclusion and the reduction of human beings to the physical body makes us wonder if a human can be illegal at all?

Screening

Available on VOD:
Vimeo

Credits

Edited by Dieter Diependaele

Camera & sound recording Elias Grootaers

Sound design Philippe Ciompi, Dieter Diependaele, Elias Grootaers, Larry Sider

Produced by Emmy Oost for Cassette for timescapes

With the support of Flanders Audiovisual Fund (VAF) and Eurodoc

Awards

Scam-prize for best Belgian audiovisual work 2010