By Air or By Land?
2016 · 11m
Directed by Matthew Cassel
Genres: documentary, drama
Tones: contemplative, tender
After finding his way to Athens with his brother, Aboud joins with other refugees to plan the best way to get to The Netherlands so that they can apply for asylum.
Picked by Zoe
The scouts
Everyone expects the refugee narrative to be either harrowing or inspirational—Cassel just lets his subjects sit in the bureaucratic limbo and talk about logistics, which is somehow more unsettling than either extreme.
A formally restrained hybrid that inherits the observational patience of cinema verité while maintaining the emotional architecture of scripted drama; the restraint itself becomes the film's argument.
The decision to let real refugees and actors share the same frame—blurring document and performance—transforms what could've been a worthy issue-film into something that actually trusts the viewer to hold contradictions.