original title:
Rejetés
directed by:
cinematography:
editing:
production:
country:
Italy
year:
2016
film run:
29'
format:
colour
status:
Ready (26/09/2016)
The last in the land of the least are the chained…!
We meet in Benin and Togo men, women and in some cases even children with mental disturbances who are at the mercy of their family and community that do not see or even have any better option than chaining them. Self-professed healers and wizards spring up and propose solutions. Their prayer camps and healing centres are in fact torture chambers for those who have already lost voices. Who listens to the cry of the ‘mad’?
We then see Gregoire and his supporters: Missionaries, volunteers from Italy, France, Canada ..etc who join forces in the fight for dignity and sanity. We are amazed to see Gregoire, a simple vulcanizer of humble beginning using the most modern means of psychiatry. Gregoire empowers the people as they recover and involves them in the management of structures and in the healing of others. The results are overwhelming.
‘Rejected’ is not a documentary just about people struggling with psychiatric disturbances, but it is a desperate cry of a population that is forced to take extreme measures to flee misery. Migration is a flight from being condemned to chains!
Some believe in Europe that the problem of migration can be solved by building walls along the borders or worse by paying the governments from where people leave so that they handle the dirty job. There are in fact people and organizations who are committed to make life not only bearable but also fulfilling for the so called ‘economic migrants’. ‘Rejected’ speaks of the courage and commitment of these people who show every day, beyond their religious faith, how possible it is to build a better world without barriers.