Eden is West

• Riccardo Scamarcio: Elias
• Juliane Köhler: Christina
• Ulrich Tukur: Nick Nickleby
• Éric Caravaca: hotel manager
• Anny Duperey: Lady in Paris

Eden is West is a feature film by the Greek- French director Constantin Costa -Gavras from the year 2009. He was shown as the official closing film of the 59th Berlin International Film Festival 2009.

Action

The protagonist Elias is on a boat full of refugees near the Greek coast. When the boat is discovered by the Coast Guard, he saves himself by jumping into the water. He wakes up on a beach, which is part of a luxury resort called Eden Club. Elias disguises itself first as a hotel employee, later as a guest. After several attempts to escape from the system fail, he is hired by a magician from Paris, who performs under the name Nick Nickelby, as an assistant for his show. The magician then gives him his business card. Elias sees this as an invitation and decides to try to get to Paris. In the hotel he also met Christina, a German tourist, know, and they begin a brief affair.

As the hotel manager, looking for illegal immigrants, begins to suspect him, he steals a boat and leaving the hotel facility. He is taken for a short time by a Greek family and then makes hitchhiking his way to Paris, without having an idea of ​​the distance. Two German truck driver to take him to France. He takes a job in a factory for electrical appliances in which many immigrants work, hoping to get as a residence permit. When he realizes that this is an empty promise, Elijah flees once more.

In a roundabout way, he finally arrives in Paris. He finds the Magicians and reminds him that he has asked him to come to him when he staying in Paris. The magician just noticed that Elias 've both done now, it is a toy wand and drives away. Elias is down and shows absently with his wand at the Eiffel Tower, on the chance in this moment, the lighting is switched on. When Elias suddenly sees a group of policemen, he is startled and realigned the wand at her. The police stop and ignore him. Elias puts the wand in his pocket and walks down the Champs- Élysées.

Background

The gambling scenes were filmed in Greece on Crete. Costa -Gavras, who himself emigrated as a young man from Greece to Paris, worked on this film for the first time in his home country. He compares the film with the Odyssey: " Much like Odysseus crossed my hero of the sea, acid tests and storms follow. He fights against the monsters of modernity and raises the myths of our time on the pile. The difference is perhaps in the fact that Odysseus wanted to return back home, as he comes to create a home. "