Description
This film portrays three Dutch families in different stages of life, who host a refugee for three months via voluntary organization Take Care Bnb.
Director Biography – Eva van Pelt
Eva van Pelt (Nijmegen, 1981) studied ‘documentary directing’ at the Dutch Film and Television academy. In her (short) films she likes to focus on people who are in any way -big or small- surpassing themselves. For the Dutch humanist broadcast company she has created and directed several seasons of a philosophy program in which four teens are investigating how to solve social issues that will have an impact on their future lives.
Director Statement
When, in the summer of 2015, the images of refugees walking into Europe were shocking the nations and reports of overcrowded refugee centres were kicking citizens into action, I immediately got in touch with the people who had just started Take Care Bnb and were (then) flooded with requests from aspirant hosts. I wanted to film the proces of Dutch families hosting refugees, because I thought it would be the perfect opportunity to get answers to the questions that are keeping the European leaders in their grip since that time: can THEY, Arabs, live together with US, Europeans, without toiling with “our culture”? And if so, how should this proces of naturalisation be executed; with empathy or a bootcamp?
I saw the situation of the host families as a metaphor for the situation in Europe: certain host families are brought together with certain refugees in an arena of which the host is the rightful owner. There are house rules that the guest is made aware of. He feels he needs to be appreciative, but also has to try to feel at home really fast.
With this approach I tried to turn a massive debate into something more manageable. The choice of focussing on the host families is simply because they are the natives to whom European politicians address their appeals to be either fearful or compassionate.
