There are moments in life where you see or hear something utterly wrong and think to yourself, "I cannot fucking believe they did that". There are things that exist way outside of the grey area, they are just totally, objectively, bad. This film dives headfirst into that category.
Refugees, many from Syria, are currently desperately seeking sanctuary in European countries, namely Germany, France, the UK. While our country’s response to the crisis could have been a million times better, Hungary’s verges on inhumane. Hungarian officials have been filmed kicking and beating refugees, using water cannons and tear gas on crowds of people, including children, and now they’ve built a razorwire fence around the country’s border with Serbia. A bad enough CV, you’d think. But when you’re on a roll...
This film, presented by the Mayor of Ásotthalom, a town on the border of Hungary, is a pseudo-cinematic warning to refugees not to enter the country that shamefully tries to double up as a trailer for a low-budget, low quality, low morals action film. Cameras linger on the classic signifiers of brutality – CCTV cameras, police vehicles, razorwire fences, men with guns and men on horses, while a tinny nu-metalish soundtrack plays in the background.
Halfway through, the soundtrack really gets a second wind and erupts into a dismally generic "rousing" affair, while a montage rolls of muscular, serious men doing serious things like radioing other serious men to make sure people who seriously need help don’t get it. At the end of the film, the mayor – wearing a blazer, jeans and shades with his hands in his pockets – stands flanked by his anti-kindness mob in a field near the border. It looks like Dragons Den: The Military Years.
The film has been uploaded to YouTube with the title "message to illegal immigrants". Here’s our message to the filmmakers – you have access to weapons, clothing, vehicles, houses and you have the money and time to make utterly appalling videos. The people that you hope see this, those searching for safety and shelter, have nothing except hope. Have some fucking humanity.
