Here to Where

A young and ambitious American director wants to make a fiction film about the true story of Merhan Karimi Nasseri, alias Sir Alfred, an Iranian refugee who has been imprisoned for twelve years at Charles de Gaulle Airport. We see the director trying to involve the introverted refugee in the project, and we see him rehearsing with other Iranians refugees in Paris, one of whom Abbas has to play a psychiatrist. The director is also busy trying to organise a free helicopter shot for his film. But when Abbas leaves and Sir Alfred doesn’t really want to cooperate, the whole project collapses.Here to Where is clearly inspired by the work of Abbas Kiarostami. In unambiguous game with documentary and fiction, Luchford confronts the familiar, yet excellently portrayed role of the insensitive independent director with the secretive refugee, who plays himself, but doesn’t really want to. Luchford excellently uses this contrast between reality and film throughout the film and manages to evoke beautifully the mood of the airport terminal, that is both hopeless and dynamic. Staged in intense, ghostly images and sustained by fine acting, the film provides an imaginative adaptation of an original and important subject.