White Paradise

Samuel bears the death of his wife heavily. He repeatedly gets into arguments with his young daughter, who, like him, is struggling with the loss of her mother. When Samuel goes to his winter chalet in the Italian Alps for a weekend, he meets the young Afghan woman Chehreh. The illegal migrant seeks refuge from the icy cold with him. Samuel doesn't want to get into trouble, but manages to persuade himself to help the young woman. Chehreh's destination: the French border. The problem: the harshness of the inhospitable natural environment and the icy hostility of the locals, who are determined to stop Chehreh's escape. Guillaume Renusson's captivating directorial debut is somewhere between a snow western and a refugee drama. However, “White Hell” relies less on the lurid setting of its title, the hostile snow-covered mountain world, and more on the touching rapprochement between a courageous migrant and a lonely man who cannot put aside his compassion and willingness to help.... and doesn't even want to. The brutal defensive reaction of the locals on the other side, who are on the hunt, seems extreme. In view of the isolation of Europe and the USA, where vigilante groups do not stop at gun violence to track down illegal migrants, the story seems frighteningly topical. In addition to his socio-critical tones, Renusson succeeds in intensifying the moments of tension in his story amidst the breathtaking landscape of the Italian Alps, creating a veritable survival thriller. He is supported in his efforts by the performance of this fated team, strongly cast with Denis Ménochet (“Peter von Kant”) and Zar Amir Ebrahimi (“Holy Spider”). “Denis Ménochet [...] pushes his large, shattered body from the inside out; he carries within him the ambivalence of this titanic shell that hides a broken heart. When he places his large hand on the trembling body of his companion to warm her in a 13-minute plan sequence, tears well up in our eyes. The feat of filming in the middle of the mountains never gets in the way of the story. “White Hell” respects the viewer's intelligence, with content never trumping form. Still, this beautiful, breathless movie says that the person you have to help because there's no other way could be the very person who, conversely, saves your life.” (Isabelle Danel, on: bande-a-part.fr)