Description
“5096” is a story about the dehumanization of refugees living in France, in “the camp of shame.” It is about women and children who are victimized, abandoned and wounded by routine political injustices. It is a story about a struggle for human rights and identity. Through the eyes of Babak, an Iranian refugee who escaped the political unrest of his homeland and lived in the Calais Jungle, “5096” reveals the truths about the psychological and physical battles of life as he poignantly depicts the tragic conditions of migrants’ lives.
Director Biography – Jean Bodon
Jean Bodon has worked as a feature film director and producer and as a director of documentaries and television commercials. His films have been screened at some of the world’s most prominent film presentation organizations including the Lincoln Center, the Library of Congress, The Smithsonian, and the Cinémathèque Française. Bodon’s films have been broadcast on HBO, Showtime, Cinemax, The Movie Channel, E!, TLC, TF1, Canal+, M6, Histoire, and many other cable systems and networks throughout the world.
Director Statement
In the late 1960s, I took the route to and from my high school through the ghettos of Nanterre, a suburb of Paris. As I was riding my Solex through miles of slums known as les bidonvilles, I of course started to think about the living conditions of the people in this horrific place, and I started to read and observe more everyday. Les bidonvilles was a place where recent immigrants lived in makeshift structures without running water and filthy living conditions. I learned through that process, that one of my heroes; Olympic Champion Boughèra El Ouafi had lived and died there. Some 50 years later, I returned to that doomed place of life: The Calais Jungle where I met new heroes like Babak Inanloo and discovered the beauty and resilience of human nature.
