Camp d'Argelers (2009)
In February 1939 the history of Argeles, a quiet fishing town, suddenly changes. Catalonia was occupied by fascist troops, 465,0000 refugees flee across the border. The French authorities order the construction of a camp on the beach... The film evokes the existence of the Argeles sur Mer concentration camp (Pyrénées-Orientales), from its creation in January 1939 to its closure in September 1941. In 1939 , filmmakers and activists, shocked by this camp, managed to smuggle a camera behind the wire fence. The few images taken directly from the Argeles camp were filmed with a hidden camera and many were seized and destroyed. “El Campo de Argeles” proposes to recreate these lost images and intersect camp life with archival images and testimonies collected throughout Europe: former internees in the camp (Spanish Republicans, Jews...) and also guards and witnesses.
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Powerful
An unexpected masterpiece
A terrific literary drama and character piece that shows how the process of creating art can be seen differently by those doing it and those looking at it from the outside.
One of the worst ways to make a cult movie is to set out to make a cult movie.