An hour north of Dublin beside the sea is a cheerful looking collection
of cement buildings with brightly painted doors and disused fairground
rides. This is Mosney, until recently a Butlin’s holiday camp,
a place where Irish families would escape the daily grind of work
in order to relax, to dance, enjoy themselves.
A visit to Mosney today presents a radically different picture, but
still a picture of escape. This former holiday camp is now a camp
of another kind, being home to immigrant asylum seekers from all corners
of the globe.
Once brought here, how do traumatically displaced people adapt to
their strange new environment? How does prolonged detention affect
their aspirations, ambitions, their mental health? Living day-to-day
in this global village of sorts, deportation is a constant fear -
one never knows what the next moment will bring. Is this a place to
begin healing, or do these anxieties create new forms of trauma? And
how does the culture of hospitality carry over with staff, many of
them working here for forty years?
Over three years, the filmmakers lived in Mosney, gaining the trust
of the residents who share their stories. The film presents an intimate
look into their lives...waiting to be either accepted into Ireland,
or sent back to the horror from which they fled.
STILLS