On the Bride's Side

In this unorthodox road movie, a Palestinian poet and an Italian journalist decide to transport five Syrian and Palestinian refugees to Sweden, even though it could lead to a charge of human trafficking. They are driven by a desire to show that there is another, more helpful Europe that sympathizes with refugees’ motives and dreams. The enterprise begins cheerfully, with the group staging a wedding in order to trick border guards on the way from Milan to Malmö. On the mountain route between Italy and France, the bride ties her white dress around her hips, and the group progresses northwards with the help of various friends, the handheld camera work capturing the emotions. Along the way, memories are reawakened of a perilous journey to Lampedusa, of the war at home and of friends who got killed. The makers claim that their film shows nothing more than “something that really took place on the road from Milan to Stockholm from the 14th to the 18th of November, 2013.” But the viewer, having gradually worked out that there’s more to it, sympathizes with this charitable expansion of Fortress Europe’s borders, and hopes for a better future for the young rapper who’s already been through so much.