One Hundred Meters Away

Juan Luis De No, Spain, 2008, colour, HD, 60 min

Synopsis
It's seven o'clock in the morning in the Spanish border town of Melilla, the southernmost tip of Europe. As soon as the customs house opens, thousands of Moroccans go over the border. While the Moroccan customs officers turn a blind eye, these people bring huge bags of clothes and other merchandise from Spain to the African continent. The couriers, men and women both young and very old, are hired by traders for a pittance. Most smugglers have no choice, as there's no alternative unskilled labour in the area. The illegal importation, which is the indirect consequence of globalisation, supports around 10.000 Moroccan families in this poor border region. The work is extremely tough, and dangerous to boot. People often get beaten up, and the customs officers are rough on them as well. Filmmaker Juan Luis De No records all of this, filming them, at times with his hidden camera, on their wild scramble over the border. He follows four smugglers at work and at home, where they live in poverty. They'd like to leave Morocco forever, but their passports only allow them to travel to Melilla for a few hours, a mirage of Europe across the Strait of Gibraltar. According to Mustafa, "All 35 million of us want to leave the country."