It’s only now that I had the opportunity to see Marian Crisan‘s ‘Morgen‘, a movie made in 2010. It’s a film about a Turkish migrant trying to make his way to Germany, the story happening a decade ago. At that time the problem of migrants in Europe existed but was far from the proportions it would reach a few years later. The political reactions that were to shake the entire political system within and between the countries of Europe were not yet visible. But something was preparing, cooking on low fire, as they say. ‘Morgen‘ captures exactly that stage and is an interesting film from a documentary and human point of view, maybe one of the first films to tackle this issue in European cinema.
The story in the film takes place in Salonta, a small city in the border area between Romania and Hungary, near a the sleepy border crossing where Romanian and Hungarian customs officers share the same booth. It is, however, still the European Union’s border, which the Turk migrant Behran (Yilmaz Yalçin) cannot cross on his way to the Germany where he is supposed to reunite with his family. He finds refuge in the house of Nelu (András Hatházi), a security guard at a local supermarket. The film deals with the confused world of the Eastern Europe, for which the end of communism meant a freedom that people do not know how to use, while the economic situation has remained rather precarious. A strange relationship forms between the two men. Mistrust and prejudice are amplified by communication difficulties due to the language barrier. The Romanian assumes some risks of sheltering an illegal migrant and helping him to continue his journey in a Europe still divide for foreigners. However, he can not do otherwise, as he would violate a deeper and more powerful human code, older than laws and borders.
The story is simple up to the point that it seems linear and rather idealized. Still, the film manages to impress because of the performances of the two actors in the main roles and of the realism with which it describes the world in which the action takes place, its geographic and human landscape. It feels like we are more in the Balkans than in Europe, in a world where the law is not fully respected, but the prejudices are also not taken until their tragic conclusion. The cinematographic style belongs to the minimalist style of the Romanian ‘New Wave’, although the technical conditions of the film remind more the Romanian films of the last century – the image is not of the best quality, the sound sometimes makes the dialogs hard to understand even for a native Romanian speaker. However, the human message of the film remains actual today, when in Europe the physical walls and the walls of prejudice not only that they did not disappear but they became even higher.