Les Unwanted de Europa

Portraying the last days in the life of philosopher Walter Benjamin (1892-1940), whose writings such as The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction have become of seminal importance in cultural criticism, Ferraro not only deals with a historical and philosophically fascinating subject, but has also crafted a landscape film of immense beauty.

Shot mostly in the South-Eastern Pyrenees in gorgeous black-and-white, where in 1939 the Catalan republicans were escaping to France, but a year later foreigners, Jews and anti-fascists were trying to escape in the opposite direction from 'collaborationist' France – among them Benjamin. The route is long and the advance is slow but the filmmaker (and agronomist) invites the viewer to a generous journey through Europe's historical past, leading to our times where the roads are once again full of refugees.