Lunch with Aïssa

An interview with Clément Tréhin-Lalanne, director of Aïssa

 It seems obvious when watching Aïssa, that the heroine is at risk of being deported from France if she ends up being past a certain age. Can you confirm that intuition and tell us more about this legal situation?

These tests, which we call “bone age tests”, are conducted on young undocumented immigrants of whom the authorities doubt the age. The judge bases his decision on the doctor’s opinion to decide if a person is a minor or an adult. If a person is declared an adult, they can be deported. If declared a minor, the person is taken in by the state as a child (housed, enrolled in school, given aid). These young people who are declared as adults go one day from being in school and in social housing to being alone and on the street the next day.

 Is the voice-over an authentic medical report or is it the product of your imagination?

Bernard Campan reads a real doctor’s report made available online by the RESF (Network for Education Without Borders) on the Rue 89 website in 2009. We changed the names, the dates and the measurements. We also reorganized the text to help the narration.

 We learn during the film that Aïssa is a trainee in a company, whereas to obtain a work contract, she would have needed to show a piece of identity and pass a medical exam. When you made this film, how did you imagine the employer’s responsibility with regard to Aïssa’s identity?

 I didn’t ask myself the question of the employer. These youth often have birth certificates that are declared fake from one day to the next. For training linked to the CAP (Certificate of Professional Aptitude), there is no medical visit and if there were one, she would simply have to prove an ability to work and not have her age investigated.

 Have you done any research on the conditions that are considered to define these age limits in the allocation of rights in France, and in particular the right to work?

No.

 In making this film, did you look into the question of the switch to an “undocumented” resident status?

Not really. My goal with the film was to concentrate on the bone age tests. The situation with the undocumented is full of injustice and aberrations, but I did not want to stray from my subject.

 Do you know if this kind of test is conducted in the United States or in other countries? Did you conceive Aïssa as a specifically French film, or do you imagine that this subject is universal?

I learned throughout the festivals I attended that these exams exist in many European countries despite the fact that they have been denounced by the European Commissioner of Human Rights, the medical academies, and the children’s rights associations from all of these countries.

 During the exam, he mentions that there is no established reference to evaluate the age of Africans and that their age has been established based on Caucasian references. Did you have a precise objective for including this element, and is this fact proven? In your opinion, is it acceptable to base evaluations which have such an important impact on the future of a human being on approximate data?

A report by the National Academy of Medicine on the reliability of physical examination for determining the chronological age of adolescents under 15 years, 16 January 2007, states, “Determination of bone age by the method of Greulich and Pyle provides an acceptable estimate of developmental age in adolescents under 16. This method does not allow for a clear distinction between the ages of 16 and 18 yeas old.” These exams aren’t reliable, they are scandalous.

 The exam is conducted by a man, whereas Aïssa is a young woman from a foreign culture. You don’t take time to address the cultural effort and motivations for Aïssa to submit to this exam. Did you “silence” her to create a particular effect?

I think it is the exam that silences her. The administrative machine takes no precautions with these young men and women. Since medicine has no gender, male as well as female doctors can conduct these exams. The hair distribution exam gives no precise information and yet many doctors conduct that exam to inform their opinion. Christian Taubira published a pamphlet demanding that these exams be conducted only as a last resort, but nothing changed in reality. Some youth were condemned to reimburse the aid they received during the time they were considered to be minors. A petition is circulating on the Network for Education Without Borders website demanding a stop to these exams. I invite you to sign it and share it.

 Finally, Aïssa was produced in France. In your opinion, what does French short film production have that the others don’t?

I am an assistant location manager for feature-length films. I was able to shoot Aïssa between two films thanks to the French system of artist subventions. I was able to attend festivals thanks to this system of artist subventions and I had brilliant technicians during the filming and post-production who were able to spend time on this project thanks to this system. It is already an incredible advantage over other countries. Next, the film was produced very quickly thanks to the support from the Midi-Pyrénées Region and then the Île-de-France Region. This support for the short film rarely exists in other European countries and we should absolutely maintain this support. France is a dream country for making films.