Documentary “Dreamers” has been acquired by Swiss sales agency Lightdox. The film has its international premiere on April 23 at the 54th Visions du Réel film festival in Nyon, Switzerland, where it competes in the Burning Lights section.
The film centers on Carlos, who arrived in Chicago from Mexico in 1993, at the age of 9, with his parents and three brothers. For 30 years, he has never been able to leave the city where he went to school and now works, coaches a soccer team, and pays his taxes, because he is still undocumented. He leads a discreet life, trying never to make a mistake, out of fear of being deported.
“Even though I think of myself as an American, and consider America my country, I could get deported anytime because my country doesn’t think of me as one of its own,” he says in the film.
The film is the third collaboration by Swiss directors Stéphanie Barbey and Luc Peter, following “Magic Radio,” shot in Niger, and “Broken Land,” which looked at the barrier erected at the border between the U.S. and Mexico.
Through Carlos’ story, the filmmakers give a face to the some 2.5 million “Dreamers” living in the U.S. – the name given to undocumented immigrants who arrived in the U.S. as minors. (The name “Dreamers” is an acronym derived from the Development, Relief and Education for Alien Minors Bill, which seeks to ease their dilemma, but remains unpassed by the U.S. Congress after numerous attempts.)
“We shot in the United States because it is a country that was built on immigration and which fascinates us for its cinematography, but it is more the story of a family than that of a country. The immigration issue is universal,” Barbey tells Variety.
The story of “Dreamers” is also one of four close brothers, all with very different fates: the youngest, a chef, leads an almost normal life after obtaining papers following his marriage. While the eldest, Jorge, was deported to Mexico 15 years ago, forced to leave his two-month-old son, born an American citizen, behind. Jorge’s absence, accentuated by the fact that he never appears in the film, weighs heavily on Carlos’ family.
Barbey says: “Our concern was to find a way to talk about undocumented persons without putting them in danger. In his youth, Carlos had been an activist for the rights of Dreamers and had already exposed himself in the press, which was more reassuring for us. We also consulted lawyers to be sure we made things right.
“The legal advisor who appears in the film also encouraged us to go on, because the more we talk about the Dreamers, the more we can make things move forward.
“Also, Chicago is a bit of a sanctuary city with a fairly tolerant policy regarding immigrants, which is not the case in the rest of Illinois for example.”
The clandestine life of Carlos, neither really there nor ever elsewhere, is richly translated by the spellbinding poetic music of Louis Jucker. Barbey and Peter also shaped it through the black-and-white camerawork of Nikolaï von Graevenitz, who sublimates the reality of the protagonist and the dramaturgy in very thoughtful and composed frames.
Both directors share a taste for the gray area between fiction and documentary. “Our goal is not to make pure documentaries. Our films are very constructed, almost like fiction, because what we like is for the spectator to empathize and feel things, and fiction is very strong for that,” Peter says. “We had this desire for black and white from the start. When we pitched the project at Visions du Réel, the trailer was already in black and white to express this life in the shadows.
“The film takes us into Carlos’ bubble, and so, it was a way to stay there completely, and not be distracted by the color, which sometimes can lighten things up a bit too much.
“We also liked the timelessness black and white gives to the film, because the situation for undocumented people, whether it’s under Obama, Trump or Biden, hasn’t changed much. It was the same 10 years ago and 10 years from now, it will probably still be the same.”
“Dreamers” is structured by Carlos’ voice-over, which describes his life in a touchingly calm and linear way, further accentuating this constant.
Barbey says: “His narrative ease, the rhythm of his words, his almost monochromatic tone combined with the power of his story, had already captivated us when we first met him for one hour via a non-governmental organization 11 years ago, while researching for ‘Broken Land.’
“It is this first confession, which had moved us, that we wanted to recreate through this film.”
The script, based on the conversations they had with Carlos over the years, brings a strong dramaturgy. “Before shooting, we went on location three times and followed him in his daily life. This time was precious to enter into a communion with the character, to make a film with him and not just a film about him,” Peter adds.
The pandemic put a stop to filming, which had started in March 2020, and redrew the scenario. By the time the crew finally received their visas to resume filming in September 2022, Biden had been elected and Carlos was about to marry his partner, who was pregnant with their first child.
“Originally, the tipping point of the film that justified Carlos’ long confession was his desire to go to Mexico to see his brother. With the risk of perhaps never being able to return,” Barbey explains.
“But in 2022, the tipping point had become Carlos’ fatherhood, which implied that he would no longer take that risk and that he might never see his brother again. That’s when the absence of Jorge began to assert itself in the construction of the film.”
The film is produced by Peter and Katia Monla of Intermezzo Films in Switzerland, in co-production with Dirk Manthey Film of Germany, RTS Radio Télévision Suisse and SWR/ARTE.