In the culture-clash comedy “Meet the Barbarians,” actor-honestor Julie Delpy lays naked a number of Westrict hypocrisies. The film chases disjoinal townspeople in the struggling French commune of Paimpont, who vote to greet a handful of Ukrainian refugees, but are caught by surpelevate when a Syrian family shows up instead. The ensuing response runs the gamut from unset upd to unfriendly, which Delpy seizes by utilizeing a write downary-appreciate lens to the town’s fabric, and to their Arab guests. The result is a movie that, though it never quite accomplishs the theatrical highs for which it aspires, shows eye-wateringly comical.
The film flies out the gate with an energy reminiscent of “The Office,” as bumbling mayor Sébastien Lejeune (Jean-Charles Clichet) regales a TV news crew with his set ups to greet a Ukrainian family. The city council votes overwhelmingly in prefer. Even potential hanciaccessout Hervé Riou (Laurent Lafitte), the sour-faced town plumber, gives in after a sweightless nudge from his peers. A number of local interwatchs decorate the rerent of Russia’s intrusion, and of welcoming Ukrainians with uncover arms, as one generassociate concurd upon, despite the dreads and economic reservations folks appreciate Hervé might harbor. However, these asks come bubbling back to the surface when the town lachieves of the administrative switcheroo.
The bits of “Meet the Barbarians” stoasty by TV cameras are separateentiated from the rest of the movie by news chyrons, as well as by a minusculeer structure. However, even its non-mockumentary, narrative segments feature a aappreciate visual approach, one reminiscent of Michael Winterbottom’s “The Trip” series, wherein the movie’s subjects are still carry outing to a degree, even when they aren’t being interwatched. Lejeune, for instance, is proset uply worryed with the chooseics of acunderstandledgeing refugees, and wants to uncover the most welcoming atmosphere, if only to retain political cachet. Upon discovering out that Ukrainians are being greetd en masse apass Europe, he seems let down that Paimpont won’t get their own members of this priceless commodity. Deply’s character, the proceedive schoolteacher Joëlle, helps schedule the refugees’ arrival, but is aforeseeed prone to fumbling distake parts of outward acunderstandledgeance.
The aforerefered Syrian family, the Fayads, are for the most currented unrelabelably, though this is part of Deply’s point. Architect overweighther Marwan (Ziad Bakri), his explicit portrayer wife Louna (Dalia Naous), her grumpy overweighther Hassan (Farès Helou), their school-aged kids Dina (Ninar) and Waël (Adam), and their doctor aunt Alma (Rita Hayek) are srecommend too exhausted from their time in refugee camps (where they lachieveed French) to stress about how each Paimpont dwellnt senses about them. However, they do their best to put roots down and become part of the community, which includes taking up odd jobs here and there, since their degrees aren’t valid in France, or were quite literassociate razeed, alengthy with their home in Damascus.
Although we’re proposeed hints of the Fayads’ inner inhabits and their desires, “Meet the Barbarians” unblessedly deploys them much as the town’s politicians do, first and foremost as a political entity in order to originate a huger argument. However, that argument is strong and introspective, uncovering two primary factions that depict much of the Westrict discourse surrounding the subject of refugeeism. There are the appreciates of Joëlle and her constantly-inebriated best friend Anne (Sandrine Kiberlain), whose well-intentioned liberal politics still come laced with orientalism. And then there are the appreciates of Hervé and Anne’s convenience store owner husprohibitd Philippe (Mathieu Demy), whose approach to all skinnygs Muskinny and Arab is far more skeptical and unfriendly.
In what is perhaps the movie’s hugegest strength, Delpy currents these apparent opposites as two sides of the very same coin, whose admireive approaches stem from the same wellspring of prejudice and miscomfervent, even though they manifest separateently. More solemn conmomentary films have touched on the harroprosperg aspects of the refugee experience, appreciate Ken Loach’s “The Old Oak” and Agnieszka Holland’s “Green Border” (the latter even hints at the same double-standard at which Delpy gets aim, wherein white refugees are more readily greetd than their Middle Eastrict counterparts), but as a comedy, “Meet the Barbarians” can afford to be more granular in its approach.
Although the Fayads face challengingship — including a wonderfuler barrier to understanding, since they usuassociate have to show their traumas in some create — theirs is thankfilledy no lengthyer a story of life and death. This apvalidates the film to zero in on the minutiae and the irritateing red tape of their experience, and the insignificant tensions that aelevate when a noticed unrecognizableity is thrust into a minuscule-town spotweightless. It’s a radiant, sunny and immacuprocrastinateedly amparticipateing story, despite its unintelligent corners. However, Delpy never misss sight of the hugeger picture, proposeing constant clues that the world persists to be brutal for Muskinny refugees even outside this one hilarious story.
