The one group they left out


Did anyone notice any people from the Middle East in the movie? It seemed to me like they were "disappeared". And yet, go to Europe as a student or traveller and you'd be hard pressed not to have frequent experiences with displaced Middle Easterners trying to pick you up. In addition to the pick up artists, many of the students the Erasmas students would have been meeting would have been from the Middle East. Not to mention a huge population of immigrants from Albania and neighboring countries.

The movie seemed to have dispensed with this population.

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[deleted]

Not so. Very much present in Barcelona and esp. Italy.

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[deleted]

I'm italian, i lived in london for a while and i've been in barcelona and in france a few times. i can tell you that in london and in france there are 10 times more people with non-european roots than in spain and particularly italy, and that includes people from middle-east. but what you're missing is that the erasmus program is for student coming from EU university: if you want to study outside the EU (poland, albania, usa and so on) or if you're coming from those countries, the erasmus program is not for you. inside universities the difference is radical: in 5 years in an italian university with something like 50000 students, i don't think i've seen more then a dozen people from middle east. i've been in a london university for 6 months and 80% of the people were from middle east or asia

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Thanks. That's an interesting comment.

I would guess that the immigrant population (whether from non-EU Europe, Middle East, or Africa) would be more prevalent within the general population of the Spanish Universities, than in the Erasmus Program itself. I hadn't realized the Erasmus program was so segregated from the general University programs. Or perhaps it's simply that immigrants tend to learn English and French before Spanish and Italian, so naturally gravitate to University campuses there. Or maybe it has something to do with the number of private colleges/ Universities in England, which are open to anyone appropriate academic qualifications and the cash to pay.

Thanks for your clarification.

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Maybe your right for the representation in Xavier's class I don't know.. But at least they showed an African immigrant at the beginning of the movie when they talk about Catalan..

For the rest I don't think that the plot of a movie should be ruled by statistics.. It's not about statistics or demographic studies. It's about the vision and perspective of one simple guy from Paris that doesn't know much about Barcelona himself as he's travelling there for the first time.

I think this is very realistic in a sense because when you are into backpacking of you travel like that for a short exchange program you only see one face of the reality.. in a sense you belong to a layer... and you see people from the same layers, people you relate to, like the bunch of Europeans Xavier happens to stay with. I think you need several visits or a long stay to get to know all the layers and complexity of a place like Barcelona, just like you would need another movie to get a deep insight of the life of these immigrants.

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Spain is flooded with Moroccans and Africans as well as as Latin Americans. But the harsh truth is that Non European immigrants are not well received in Europe. And this film chooses to focus on Europeans only.

Aliases; Haptki ze penis, crotchkicker, Bossman, The caboose

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I wish to add 2 further clarifications: for one, Erasmus is an European program, so naturally non-Europeans have their own versions, or get into universities by their own financing. However, "having no shared cultural values" is simply not true, bear in mind, much of Western Europe were their former colonizers, cultures have been exchanged, as well as people.

On the second part, you're partially right about gravitation toward English and French language schools, but it has a different reason besides language: prestige, affordability and it also depends what you learn. In the medical field for example, Hungarian universities are on par with their Western counterparts, and I've met a lot of Saudis, who studied there, and stayed behind as doctors. Even in today's crazy, Islamophobic world, people are practical to accept a foreign doctor over a local one, if (s)he is willing to work for pennies.

There's a different issue, that wasn't covered in 2002 simply for the fact, that Eastern Europe wasn't part of the EU, namely why students from there have a low tendency to get exchanged into countries, which language they don't speak. In theory, they could, but the xenophobia did not start last year. After decades of compulsory Russian, most people only learn English or German, when I got my niveau intermediare, I was one 6 thousand people to do so, Spanish and Italian are even less. For historical reasons, if they can, Albanians visit Italian universities in geographical proximity.

What the film does deliver on is the culture shock. I've learned a different French from what the Belgians use here, and many French have trouble with occitan, despite being in the same country. The one thing I couldn't believe is when the Belgian girl said, if she claims to be French, the Flemish talk to her in French. That must have been Brussels, as on general average they only learn each other's languages in middle school, only to quickly forget it and never use it again. It's the same with Eastern Europeans, most don't get a chance to use it on a daily basis, so as a friendly advice, don't look for off the beaten path opportunities unless you have a trusted translator friend. While I was living back home, I've got to learn the French love brocante, which is an antique market, and the country has the largest market. Problem is, they like to be advanterous, and find it on their own, except the metro station bearing a resembling name to the market is nowhere near it, and I've informed a few of them on how to find it, as I happened to be there. Partly it's their fault too to not learn other languages, but partly also that of the host country, which is a linguistic desert.

Oh, and the English brother, despite doing one generous act was a Brexit voter, kind of hard not to see why.

I live in the Gordius Apartment Complex, my interior designer was M.C. Esher.

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Though I liked the movie a lot, I found this rather disconcerting. In fact, I thought I saw a rather alarming subtext in the film. The token "immigrant" is of black West African descent, which, among other things, suggests he may also come from a Christian background. From a demographic perspective, it is a bit absurd to include one West Aftrican in the film, and no North Africans or Eastern Europeans whatsoever. Thus, I found the feel-good "one europe" message a little disconcerting, as it too conveniently side-stepped the very serious issues of race, religion, community, and civilization that europe faces. The charitable interpretation is that the film-maker didn't want to get into that whole can of worms. The less charitable interpretation is that there is a subtle message about what "Europe" is supposed to look like- integrated, secular, but still Christian in background, and certainly not Eastern in any way, shape, or form.

In this way, the film reminded me of "Amelie"- they both attempt, in a way, to create a picture of a society that has simply never existed, no matter how many Parisians or Catalans want it to.

And, by the way, Albanians are "properly" Europeans. They just aren't in an EU country. And North Africans (and Spaniards of North African descent) are found in large numbers in Barcelona and most other Spanish cities, seeing as how they used to own the place and all that...and as how Morocco happens to be just on the other side of the Straits of Gibraltar and all that...

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Very interesting comments. I agree with you, and accept your corrections and interpretations.

I also think it's true that it's somewhat natural and normal for European trendy students, as shown in this film, to ignore North Africans or indeed Middle Easterners with whom they had no shared set of cultural values, but they would certainly be aware of them on the street. Perhaps it is also true, as someone else stated, that the trendier, more modern North African or other immigrants would be integrated with European students, but not included in the Eurasmus program itself.

Still...when I go to Europe, I notice the Muslim and immigrant presence, in all it's forms (trendy and not) very strongly, and I would have expected any more made later than say, 1990, to reflect this presence.

(and for the record, I actually do know where Albania is)

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[deleted]

It's okay, Adam. Calm down. It's okay to discuss elements of a film, and even to disagree on its central theme. Really. It's okay.

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[deleted]

[deleted]

Actually, there were no white people from Canada, New Zealand, America (except for the one guitar guy) or Australia, and there are plenty of them as tourists/backpacker in Europe everywhere.

So the movie is not singling out middle eastern people, it is simply focusing on people from Europe. *beep* - a movie can't focus on every nationality in the world!

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Very true..

But in this European context there's one much more obvious 'group' left out of which I found it very strange - the Dutch.

Not only is the Netherlands one of the 6 founders of the EU, the Dutch are also well known for being a travelling people and studying abroad, being multilingual, would've worked perfectly in this film I'd say..

Okay, I admit there was at least one Dutch person in the movie: Erasmus himself :)

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Yeah, I actually found that very strange also! but maybe he decided to include the belgian girl instead... in fact, except for the danish boy (who had been to France for 1 year) every other country neighbours France (Germany, Belgium, Italy, Germany, Spain and England by sea).
I guess they focused on the traditional home-countries for ERASMUS (which together with Holland and Greece probably welcome a massive number of students every year) and tried to promote the exchange program among them. However I did find strange to not include a ukrainian or polish student... pure choices i guess!
About the lack of africans and middle easterners, it's a french movie about Erasmus, of course the main focus is not showing every different culture in the whole world. right?

Who cares if there were muslims or christians or buddhists in it or not? We never saw a single one of them praying or going to the church so why is religion an issue? He tried to please everyone but ignoring the subject because when we're in Erasmus people dont care what religion you believe in, they just want to know where you're from.

PS: about the proportions of nationalities I may (if i remember) get back to this post in a few months from now when I finish my own Erasmus experience starting in two weeks =) canĀ“t wait!

youngsters dont make mistakes, they try new things n besides, brains r overrated!

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Since the movie is an allegory about the formation of the European Union, Middle Eastern people have no place in the film and were therefore left out.

Each of the students in the film represents a country in the EU and the film is about how, given time and after getting to know one another, each would gain a mutual understanding, respect and liking for one another, and as a result, everyone - every country - would benefit from the Union. The apartment is a microcosm of the EU. Wendy's racist brother William represents the UK and it's reluctance to embrace the EU via its' non-adoption of the euro. Martine, Xavier's girlfriend, represents the old France and it's snobbish attitudes toward other countries. And, at the end, when Xavier meets Martine for the last time, he tells about the first time they kissed "on the narrowest street" in France, again another allegory about the small, limited nature of France on her own. After leaving the old France - Martine - behind and embracing the EU, that narrowness is exchanged for an expansive future.

I've written this quickly and have only touched on the most obvious symbols, but the characters in the film and their nationalities were selected for a reason. Yes, there are Middle Eastern and Muslim students all over Europe, but they are ignored for a reason.

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[deleted]

There were not any japanese either. Please don't be so supersensitive about these things. Not everything is about the middle-east.

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I really don't get this attitude. I have a Middle East/Central Asia-background myself and I was never bothered about anyone being "left out". Why can't you just take it for what it is? He happened to end up sharing a house with a bunch of other Europeans. Even if it did touch the identity issue, and glorified "Europe" in a way that I thought was unpleasant, I don't see how there should be a preconception about "including everyone". It wouldn't have made any difference if they'd switched one of them with someone from the ME. In total I'd say we were introduced to 10 students in the whole film. That none of them were from the ME doesn't make it strange at all.

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As a non-European that lived in Europe as student I think the lack of middle eastern people in this movie is normal. Plenty of Arabs emigrate to Europe for work, not to study and those that move for studying will stay anyway in the country where they are doing the complete program, as it would be redunant moving somewhere else since they are already foreigners in the former country.

I think it would be even more important to question the complete absence of people from Central and Eastern Europe, as there are always plenty of this in Erasmus. Polish, Hungarian, Czech, Slovakian, from the Baltic, and Russian (even if this one is not a EU country). But I guess it's also because of the year (2002) The EU and Erasmus have evolved much in these 11 years.

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I was a first year student in France when this movie came out, and there wasn't any Middle Easterners in my class of 35 (I was in "Maths Sup" so small classes).

In fact Middle Easterners are pretty rare in France, and those we do get (Lebanese, a few Egyptians, etc.) might not even look that Middle Easternish. I'm guessing Spain is similar.

Now North Africans, we have plenty in France, but again none in my class. It's a sad reality that they don't end up studying for the most part, even when they're third or fourth generation French. Those that do study make it fine though, my boss is North African, several are ministers right now... Same thing in Spain.

I had one "minority" in my class, a black African from a former French colony (can't remember which to be honest), she was also the only girl, incidentally !

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This very well could have been true, but how about the largest movie industry in the world: the USA. a good percentage of movies made here take place in Los Angeles and they never show any Mexicans. That's the way these things work, people include and exclude whomever they want.

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