Binti (2019)

Directed by: Frederike Migom | 90 minutes | family | Actors: Bebel Tshiani Baloji, Baloji, Mo Bakker, Joke Devynck, Caroline Stas, Tatyana Beloy, Aboubakr Bensaihi, Kuno Bakker, Alix Konadu, Frank Dierens, Marijke Van Der Kelen, Veronica van Belle, Linda Kompany, Wies Nuyens

‘You are alive, but you do not exist’, is how twelve-year-old Binti and her father Jovial describe their situation. They live illegally in Belgium, in an overcrowded squat where the police can come at any moment to arrest people. Every now and then someone sees their prayers answered and he or she gets a phone call with the redeeming words: you can stay. Without papers you do not exist and you can be sent back to your country of origin overnight. A country where, like Binti, you’ve barely been, where they speak a language you don’t master and where you can’t make the dreams you have come true. Illegality is a heavy theme, but in the cheerful and hopeful Flemish youth film ‘Binti’ (2019) by director and screenwriter Frederike Migom, it is treated in such an approachable and light-hearted way and made insightful that you almost forget that people’s lives are actually here at stake. stand game. That doesn’t make the message any less convincing.

The young jump-in-the-field Bebel Tshiani Baloji plays the title role with gusto. Binti dreams of becoming a famous vlogger and already has over a thousand followers of which she is very proud. The videos she puts online are playful and cool, but she can’t capture every aspect of her life. If the wrong people see them, Binti and her father Jovial (Baloji, in real life also the father of Bebel Tshiani Baloji) have to return to Congo. When the immigration police suddenly storm into the squat where Binti, Jovial and dozens of other illegal immigrants live, father and daughter flee. They end up in a wooded area, where they lose sight of each other. Binti discovers a tree house where she wants to shelter from the rain. The tree house turns out to belong to eleven-year-old Elias (Mo Bakker), a boy who has devoted his life to saving the okapis, an animal related to the giraffe and who only lives in the wild in Congo (!). Elias lives with his mother, fashion designer Christine (Joke Devynck), in a luxurious villa on the edge of the forest. Stiff neighbor Floris (Frank Dierens) has a crush on Christine, but she’s not quite sure what to do with his advances. Elias hopes it won’t work out, because he thinks Floris is just a turd. His real father lives in Brazil with his new wife and their baby, but Elias has never given up hope that his parents will get back together. He realizes that saving the okapi won’t work with the door-to-door selling of cookies. He better try online. Fortunately, he has just made a new girlfriend who is excellent with her cell phone.

Christine is not the worst; she immediately lets Binti stay in the house and Jovial is also very welcome, especially after she has heard their story. When it turns out that things click just as well between the adults as between the children, Binti maps out the ideal scenario: Christine and her father fall in love, get married and all the hassle about residence papers is solved in one fell swoop. She hopes to bring them closer together during a manifestation to raise money for the okapis. But not everyone welcomes a possible romance between Christine and Jovial; not only would it be a loss for Floris, Elias also prefers things to go differently. And it also bothers him that Binti only makes an effort for the okapis out of self-interest. But is that really so…?

‘Binti’ has already won several prizes and rightly so. Frederike Migom manages to reduce the social problem of migration and illegality to the core in a striking way and to package it in a catchy and appealing jacket. With the vibrant Bebel, she also has a convincing pivot around who the story revolves, she is the one who brings all the other characters together to open the door to a better future. Christine is also a crucial character. Of course, you might wonder how credible it is that she lets a total stranger girl stay in her house right away, but the fact that she opens up and embraces the strangers, newcomers or whatever you want to call them instead of rejecting them is a message of positivity that is a growing need in these increasingly grim times. This film therefore does not look at the differences between them, but at universal things that people share and that bring them together. Think of dance, music, creativity and discovery. But the fact that Binti and her father live in great uncertainty and are sometimes close to despair, is certainly not forgotten; that fate is lurking and could strike at any moment. Migom manages to keep the balance between that serious undertone and the cheerfulness of childish camaraderie and budding love just right that the youth understand and feel it. But like Binti, they will never give up, because this film always holds hope. A good life lesson in this warm, socially involved top production of our southern neighbors.