Toronto Human Rights Watch Film Festival

 
Samer Muscati, a researcher with Human Rights Watch Middle East and North Africa division, introduces tonight’s film, Welcome, writer-director Philippe Lioret’s dramatic chronicle of intersecting lives.
 
Set in Calais, Welcome stars Vincent Lindon as Simon, a local swimming instructor privately reeling in turmoil because he dreads an imminent divorce from his wife (Audrey Dana). Soon, his path unexpectedly crisscrosses with that of Bilal (Firat Ayverdi), a 17-year-old Kurdish refugee with two aspirations: swim the English Channel, and join his girlfriend in England. The film has touched a nerve in France and resulted in an unexpected slam from Immigration Minister Eric Besson.
 
Guest Samer Muscati is a documentary photographer, lawyer and former journalist who has worked in Rwanda, Iraq and East Timor in the fields of human rights and development. His photographs have been published in Time Magazine and other publications in North America and Europe. Samer contributed to The Men Who Killed Me: Rwandan Survivors of Sexual Violence (Douglas & MacIntyre publishers).
 
Welcome screens at 7 PM at Jackman Hall, Art Gallery of Ontario. For more information or to order tickets, please call the TIFFG Box Office at 416-968-FILM or toll-free 1-877-968-FILM. Tickets can also be purchased online at tiff.net/cinematheque and will be available at the theatre.