Welcome - 2009

The title of this film is misleading because the last thing Bilal feels in welcome as he travels miles to find and reunite with the girl he loves. The community of struggling illegal aliens in Calais is captured with authenticity, from the point of view of people who arrived there knowing nothing about France.

When authorities forbid young Kurdish refugee Bilal (Firat Ayverdi) from crossing the English Channel to reunite with his girlfriend in England, the 17-year-old resolves to swim to his love -- and finds an unlikely ally in the form of swim instructor Simon (Vincent Lindon). Facing an inevitable divorce from his wife (Audrey Dana), the middle-aged teacher takes the resolute youth under his wing in this stirring, beautifully acted French drama.