La forteresse (2008)

Vignette | The Vallorbe Registration and Procedure Centre. For the first time, the Federal Office for Migration opens the doors of one of its CEPs, without any restrictions or censorship. The Fortress is a direct-cinema documentary that observes the workings of the Vallorbe Centre at eye level over a period corresponding to the maximum length of stay for an asylum seeker. In this austere transit facility, governed by a regime of semi-detention and enforced idleness, two hundred and fifty men, women and children from every background wait—between a painful past and an uncertain future—for the Confederation to decide their fate. Immersed in the heart of this daily sorting of human beings, the film portrays this federal institution from the perspective of the asylum seekers, but also from that of the staff responsible for running it. Conducting interviews, ensuring security, cleaning rooms, feeding people... Nearly [number missing] people share the tasks needed to keep this complex machine running. Swiss, foreign, cross-border commuters, or sometimes even former asylum seekers, all these employees have a particular relationship with their work. Faced day after day with this continuous stream of humanity adrift, their task—both delicate and complicated—is to choose who must leave and who may stay. The film follows around ten “protagonists,” both employees and asylum seekers, and encounters a wide range of situations, often difficult, sometimes funny or moving, amid a daily life that is as chaotic as it is strictly regulated. Between these “characters,” glances—necessarily different—are exchanged: sometimes benevolent, sometimes wary, often questioning and occasionally evasive. Together, they offer a compelling insight into a reality where cultural divides and differences in status—decision-makers on one side, applicants on the other—are part of everyday life. Through the various journeys, the film thus tells, with an almost fictional narrative density, of the ambivalent ties Switzerland maintains with its asylum seekers.