54 minutes, 2018
Director : Elsa PUTELAT and Nicolas DUPUIS (France)
Production : EKLA Production, ViàOccitanie Montpellier (France)

Almost 30 years after the fall of the Iron Curtain, Europe is once again retreating behind its borders. Spain, Greece, Bulgaria, Hungary, France at Calais, and soon Norway are all closing their borders, creating walls. Media coverage of the migrants has increased the rate at which these fortifications are put in place and strengthened controls. Hundreds of thousands of ever more sophisticated and expensive cameras, sensors and other equipment, thousands of men to monitor them – costing, of course, billions of euros. But despite all these walls, several thousand refugees still arrive in Europe each month. So why continue to build them?
This film questions the European policy of withdrawal behind its frontiers – a documentary survey across Europe to investigate and understand the hidden side of these walls which we, the citizens of Europe, know little about.

Elsa PUTELAT has been working since 2005 in different sectors (legal, coordination, consultation) within various humanitarian organisations: Amnesty International, Médecins du Monde, ACAT, Cimade. In 2007 and 2010 she also worked on two films produced by Plateforme des ONG françaises.
In 2018, she joined with Nicolas Dupuis to make “L’Europe au pied des murs”. Nicolas DUPUIS has made several films, short and long, since 2005, including “Quelle était belle mon usine” (52 minutes) in 2008, and “Tant qu’il y aura un blocus” (52 minutes) in 2012, co-directed with Matthieu Jeuland.

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