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Samos The Faces of our Border

At the border of the Schengen Area, international laws and conventions forced thousands of people to live in inhuman camps.
One of them is the « hotspot » of Samos, on the island that has the same name.
Focusing on the people in and around this migrant camp, built for 600 persons and where more that 6000 live now, it also gives an insight on the European politics that have led to this catastrophic situation.

This is not inspired by a true story.
These are true stories.
Their stories, making our History.

These 28 interviews have been conducted in June 2019.

  • Shams Abou El Enein
    Director
  • Shams Abou El Enein
    Producer
  • Benoît Ravanel
    Sound Engenieer
  • Yoann Monet
    illustrator
  • Fabienne Moret
    illustrator
  • Élodie Armengaud
    illustrator
  • Mathilde Heu
    illustrator
  • Project Type:
    Documentary, Feature
  • Runtime:
    1 hour 28 minutes
  • Completion Date:
    March 12, 2020
  • Production Budget:
    40,000 CHF
  • Country of Origin:
    Switzerland
  • Country of Filming:
    Greece
  • Language:
    English, French, German
  • Shooting Format:
    Digital
  • Aspect Ratio:
    16:9
  • Film Color:
    Color
  • First-time Filmmaker:
    Yes
  • Student Project:
    No
Director Biography - Shams Abou El Enein

Shams Abou El Enein is a Swiss filmmaker who started at a very young age to attend a local monthly film contest where he was the youngest director, and won amongst other categories, best film of the year in 2011.
In 2012 and 2013 he attended the S.A.E. Institute Geneva then in 2014, his short movie "EMERENTIA" ended up as one of the sixth best films out of the "Bloody Cuts Horror Film Contest". In summer 2015 he directed a second short film, "SEMEDEE" released in 2019.
Shams moved to Vancouver in 2014, to attend the Vancouver Film School, where he directed his short film: “MECHANICS OF LIFE".
He is now back in Switzerland where he works as full time director for BuzzBrothers Sarl, making commercials for worldwide brands like HONDA, L’OCCITANE EN PROVENCE, NESTLE...
In June 2019 he shot "SAMOS - The Faces Of Our Border" his first feature length film.

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Director Statement

In June 2019, when I chose to go and volunteer with the refugees in Europe, I started to look up information about the crisis. I knew very little about what happened on the field and was surprised to see how difficult it was to find reliable, updated and easy to access information.

Because it’s simply not in the news.

So I decided to make a documentary that shows the complexity of the situation, to let people know what is currently happening in the EU.

At that time, my knowledge of the situation was not good enough to speak by myself. So I choose to let the people on the ground speak and tell their point of view and made as many interviews as possible in the time I was there.