Stella

Stella is a Romanian woman living with her husband in a shantytown located inthe Parisian suburb of Saint-Denis, alongside the Eurostar railway tracks. Inorder to survive, she begs in the metro - at the “Oberkampf” station.Who is Stella? Why did she come to France? What did she leave behind inRomania? How did she adapt to living in a shantytown? How did she come to thedecision to beg? What does she want out of life, what are her projects... herdreams? As I asked myself these questions, I decided to go and film her. Icompletely immersed myself into Stella’s life. Determined not to fall intoquaint clichés, I took all the time I needed to translate her reality intoimages. I offered her a space within which toexpress herself and she has occupied it in an honest, subtle, sensitivemanner. And so Stella allowed me to touch on the myth of the Eastern Europeanimmigrant to better deconstruct it.STELLA is at the same time the story of a worker baffled by the chaotichistory of her home country, of a lover endangering her own life in order tosave that of her man, of an immigrant rejected but cured by her country of‘refuge’... and, above all, STELLA is the story of an ordinary woman, awoman like us, who never stops dreaming.