Welcome (2009)

Cautiously Recommended

France/Belgium/UK

Feature Film

Director: Philippe Lioret

Writers: Philippe Lioret, Olivier Adam, Emmanuel Courcol, Serge Frydman

Cinematographer: Laurent Dailland

Composer: Nicola Piovani

Cast: Vincent Lindon, Firat Ayverdi, Audrey Dana, Derya Ayverdi, Thierry Godard, Selim Akgül, Firat Celik, Murat Subasi

In Lioret’s compelling and moving though vaguely implausible film, a middle-aged swimming instructor, in the midst of an amicable divorce, befriends (in the hopes of impressing his compassionate soon-to-be ex) a 17-year-old Iraqi-Kurd illegal immigrant, who foolhardily but romantically wishes to learn how to swim in order to cross the Channel to be with his soon-to-be-married-to-her-cousin girlfriend in London. Iain.Stott