portrait of a woman in search of freedom against a backdrop of illegal immigration

The association of a migrant and a young woman, who struggles to meet her needs and especially those of her child, gives rise to a risky business. The adventure, which will result from it, is a path to freedom, but not the one we believe. “Le Prix du passage” by Thierry Binisti is to be discovered this Wednesday, April 12 in dark rooms.

What wouldn’t you do to have some hot water, especially when you’re a single mother raising, almost alone, her 8-year-old child? The unexpected meeting of Natacha (Alice Isaaz), a penniless young Frenchwoman, and Walid (Adam Bessa), a young Iraqi migrant, offers an original response and a starting point for Thierry Binisti’s film, The price of the passage, now in theaters this Wednesday, April 12. Natacha decides neither more nor less, with the complicity of Walid, to become a ferryman.

Not quite like the others

At first glance, Natacha is no different from all those people who take advantage of the precariousness suffered by migrants who try to reach England, via Calais, by crossing the Channel. If she is outraged by the rates applied by the smugglers, she also quickly understands that this activity could be the solution to these current financial worries, which are the price of her freedom. Natacha does not want to depend on her mother, yet she is ready to help her and her son, Enzo.

The freedom that Walid hopes to enjoy is that of moving around and thus giving his dreams a chance to come true. Starting with no longer having on his back his smuggler using mafia methods and to whom he still owes money. With his cousin Sami, they are impatiently awaiting Ziad, Walid’s brother, who will bring the rest of the sum they need to finance their passage. But Sami is already at the end of his rope. He will also be the first beneficiary of the “small” but above all very risky business that Natacha and Walid are setting up. The latter constantly warns the young woman of the dangers she runs by turning into a smuggler. Yet it is the least of her worries: from the height of her 25 springs, Natacha has on her side the courage that casualness gives.

The price of freedom

Revelations of the César 2018, Alice Isaaz and Adam Bessa are now playing the role in a fluid staging and a plot that holds in suspense, the air of nothing, by playing on a real dichotomy. On one side, the camera lingers on the faces of the protagonists, their expressions and the postures of their bodies often under tension. On the other hand, by playing the card of repetition, especially for the scenes around the ferry crossing, Thierry Binisti plunges the viewer into a sort of lethargy from which he awakens them, at regular intervals, thanks to the suspense inherent in the long footage. The filmmaker also skilfully uses photography which punctuates several key scenes. Light then rhymes with deliverance.

By raising the question of the free movement of migrants, The price of the passage ask that of those who have it in fact and what they end up doing with it. For Natacha, paradoxically, the perilous journey in which she undertakes with her stowaways opens up new horizons for her. The young woman must rethink her definition of freedom, armed with the certainty that her child must in no way suffer from his legitimate aspiration to fly on his own. Thierry Binisti thus delivers, with finesse, a portrait of a woman where appearances are more than deceiving.

The sheet

Genre : Drama
Director: Thierry Binisti
Actors: Alice Isaaz, Adam Bessa, Catherine Salee and Ilan Debrabant
Pays : France
Duration : 1h40
Sortie : 12 avril 2023
Distributer : Diaphana Distribution

Synopsis : Natacha, 25, a young single mother struggles to raise her 8-year-old son Enzo. Walid, meanwhile, is waiting to collect enough money to pay for his passage to England. Desperate, together they improvise an artisanal network of clandestine passages.