‘The Volunteer’: Carmen Machi in a refugee camp

From all these reflections, ‘Volunteer’, the second feature film of the director after the film, emerges. ‘Mary and others’. In her first film, she talked about the crisis of the thirties through the eyes of a disoriented young woman. This case focuses on a recently retired woman (doctor) who feels useless in her new role in a society that no longer needs her. That’s Marisa (Carmen Machi), she has no grandchildren and doesn’t have the kind of relationship she wants with her children. He will decide at the dead end traveling to Greece to help others. There he will find a panorama to disturb him, and he will need to protect a child of Syrian descent as a refuge from almost all his insecurities, leaving the others aside.

“Marisa’s character has this thought: it’s better to save one because I can’t save them all. But still its Premise Volunteering conflicts with the idea of ​​aid workers, quite the opposite: Even if some get lost on the way, let’s try to get the best for as many as possible”, says Nely Reguera.

western arrogance

After passing the Malaga Festival, the film is currently screened at the D’A Film Festival and will be released on June 10. somehow the west seeks swaggerhow we get places by putting ourselves in the center pretending to know what’s best for the rest, in reality it’s the opposite. “I was interested in the way the audience travels with Marisa, empathizing with her and her intentions, so that as the film progresses, they question whether they will behave the same way,” the director continues. For him, this uncertainty was as fundamental as the set of questions produced in such a complex scenario.. What is our role as a Western society? How far are we willing to go to help each other? Why is it so easy to look away? Have we lost our empathy for others?

Reguera was always open that the movie should have been shot on a real set. A refugee camp could not be recreated because that way everything would go wrong. “We’re going in malaka, one hour from Athens. We’ve repeated this a thousand times because we didn’t want to offend, but they appreciated anything that could give them some visibility, and they were all paid to participate in the movie.” Indeed, the cast are real refugees, but also heroic boy, Ahmed (Bath Aldarweesh Almanawer)He was born in Turkey and spent part of his childhood from field to field until he came to Germany where he is currently living . “They all convey so much truth because they are based on their own stories and have shared them so generously. After all, her only desire is to find a better life, a home.”