Adú, la historia de un superviviente
In Spain, messages circulate through social networks and Whatsapp groups claiming that menas -acronym for Unaccompanied Foreign Minors- receive a pension of 644 euros per month, higher than a widow's pension when, in reality, beyond being under guardianship in a center, they do not receive any direct benefit. Other hoaxes also relate them to delinquency, such as the one that pointed out that the so-called Manada de Manresa was made up of adolescents of Moroccan origin, when in fact they were Spanish. In addition, the story of one of these minors may be the big winner of the great night of Spanish cinema.
The film directed by Salvador Calvo has been the most nominated film for the 2021 edition of the Goya Awards granted by the Spanish Film Academy, no less than 13 categories in which it could be awarded. Critics warn that it could be a mirage and it is easy that, especially in the most relevant categories such as Best Film or Best Direction, the statuettes could be snatched away by the other two great favorites: Las niñas, by Pilar Palomera, and La boda de Rosa, by Icíar Bollaín.
The film tells the story of Adú, a six-year-old boy who tries to reach Europe from the Democratic Republic of Congo after losing his parents and witnessing the poaching of an elephant. His sister will die after they both manage to sneak into the landing gear of an airplane. On the way, he allies with a young Somali, Massar, who shares his goal of reaching Spain. Alongside them travel a Spanish father, an environmental activist (Luis Tosar) and his daughter (Anna Castillo), with whom he does not have a good relationship. Waiting for them at the Melilla fence is Mateo, a young civil guard with humanist ideals who tries to ensure that not a single migrant dies.
It is a Mediaset production with the participation of Netflix, the platform where it can currently be seen online. The production company and distributor Yelmo Cines donated part of its box office -which gave good numbers more than a year ago-, to the NGO Ditunga Project for the construction of a new hospital in the south of the Democratic Republic of Congo. Although perhaps everything in it has some marketing of solidarity, it is also a film that does not pretend to reinvent cinema, but it explains in a direct way what it wants to explain about the stories behind those who seek a better future in Europe.
The young protagonist, played by the child actor Moustapha Oumarou, we will see him fleeing from the violence of poachers, a pedophile, the police of several countries and even the sea. He is a stowaway on a plane, in a caravan and a swimmer afloat in the Strait of Gibraltar. The stress and violence involved for a child of just six years old, separated from his father and losing his mother and sister in just a few days is something that, as an audience, an average European does not aspire to understand. Or, at least, has not experienced firsthand.
The Spanish point of view, with the Peninsula as an idyllic destination of freedom and security, is provided by the activist Gonzalo played by Luis Tosar, whose motivations for traveling and living in Africa are never quite clear, and his daughter, but also by the guard Mateo, for whom Álvaro Cervantes has been nominated for Best Supporting Actor. The film - now back in theaters taking advantage of the pull of the nominations - tries to place the Spanish public before the reality of those whose human rights are put in question, who are overcrowded and criminalized. At the same time, it asks the viewer to distance himself both from judgment -which some of the characters that Mateo faces- and from condescension -in which Gonzalo falls into and suffers the consequences-.
The situation of the protagonist of this film is not exceptional. An information in El País from just over a year ago gathered that the memories of the Prosecutor's Office point out how between 2012 and 2018, the number of unaccompanied foreign minors has gone from 3,261 to 13,796, a growth of 323%. In the same period, the total number of foreign minors - accompanied or unaccompanied - who were detained and investigated fell by 32%, according to the Ministry of the Interior's Crime Statistics System.
Organizations such as the Andalucía Acoge federation have been running campaigns for years, such as Stop Rumors, which in their region has been dedicated to turning educational centers into places free of racist hoaxes. Amnesty International Spain or the European Commission have launched campaigns to combat them and make it clear that we are talking about minors fleeing situations of extreme poverty, war and vulnerability, as reported by Unicef itself. Most organizations criticize the term mena as dehumanizing.
Adú is a commercial film with aspirations of making good numbers because it must be, since the rawness of what happens in it hopes to reach the widest audience. Whether it remains in the always criticized cleansing of consciences or serves to invite action, in solidarity and politics, depends entirely on us.