Gatekeepers

In 2008, more than 15,275 people applied for political asylum in the Netherlands. Of these, 427 received refugee status. Gatekeepers shows us how the stringent selection procedure takes place. Filmmaker René Roelofs followed several "gatekeepers" as they went about their daily task of hearing out the asylum seekers' stories. Seasoned and apparently unfazed, they listen to accounts of violence, poverty, war, and other horrors. They know all the tricks of the trade, such as making fingerprinting impossible by using a file or depilatory cream on the fingertips. They have had instruction on the reading of maps so they are able to test asylum seekers on their knowledge of the area they say they come from. "When you come across a real refugee, you can trace pretty much everything." A delegation also travels to Syria to select refugees in situ. Meanwhile, the unit manager impersonates an in-house radio announcer who cheerily reports that the Somalis are still number one in the top three of applicants, that the Afghans are number two, but the Mongolians have pushed the Iraqis out of third place. He suggests a tune for a staff member who has become a 3TB unit manager through the SAC/BAC procedure, whatever this means. "That deserves a song," he says, as the gates of the asylum seekers center inexorably close. (International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam)