Confrontatie

On the basis of the vicissitudes of a number of Tamils, Leen van den Berg en Hens van Rooy scrutinize the Dutch policy towards refugees. The result is a beautifully made and touching documentary film. Nearly all Tamils in Holland experience the same fate as the vast majority of the people requesting political asylum: expulsion. An average of one in ten refugees is allowed to stay. In spite of the fact that since 1984 a civil war has raged in Sri Lanka, the Dutch government prefers to send the Tamils back to their own country. So in Confrontatie the Tamil-spokesmen, not surprisingly, express their criticism of the Dutch policy. One of them is Rawi. He fled in January, on the day of the harvest home, Tai Pongal. He has been filmed on a boat in the Biesbosch, where he celebrates this feast anew together with a few people. Because he has been waiting a long period for the decision about his request for asylum, Rawi is very tense and is being treated by a doctor: "I just try to go on like a machine, without much thinking". After a few months, his wife, Yogeendi, followed him. She thinks that Holland does not do justice to their cause: "Over here people think that we have come for reasons of money, but back there we were not sure of our lives." (International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam)