Normally Sinan Can can be found in the Middle East with a camera crew, but forhis new documentary Fault lines he spends a year in so-called ‘no-go zones’in European problem neighbourhoods. Bee Khalid & Sophie the documentarymaker tells about what he found there.
Can traveled to the suburbs of Paris, where there is a lot of crime andunemployment. “I travel a lot to the Middle East, so I was shocked that it isalso so miserable in some places around here,” says the documentary maker.“They almost don’t last. They feel like they are abandoned. The state haswithdrawn from those neighborhoods and so the neighborhoods are being takenover by criminals.”
Sinan Can: ‘There was a constant fire in this district’
As an example, Can mentions the suburb of Clichy sous Bois, which is locatedeast of Paris. “I have never seen such a place in Europe. Think of chunks ofconcrete thundering down, constant fires and rubbish not being picked up. Thealleys deal. If a police does come into the neighborhood because teenagers aremessing around, it is with tear gas. What you see a lot there is that thestate is withdrawing.”
For example, Can sees with his own eyes how a tunnel in Clichy sous Bois,> which led to the inner districts of Paris, is closed by a number of masons.> According to residents of the problem neighborhood, this was commissioned by> the Paris police to keep the problems out of the center. Popularly in Paris> today it is called ‘the wall of shame’. And in another neighborhood too, it> has been ensured that people cannot walk from one side to the other by means> of road blocks. “As a result, those people become even more isolated,” says> Can in Khalid & Sophie.
Documentary Broken Lines is about no-go zones in Europe
Also in Sweden, a country that is seen as an example for many when it comes toprosperity, there is a notorious district. It concerns Rinkeby: a districteast of Stockholm. According to Can, it is even one of the most dangerousneighborhoods in Europe. “We were there with the director and a cameraman. Wewere told not to come out after 8pm. At one point there were attacks againstthe police and a bomb exploded at the police station. Then the police left.”
Can also see harrowing situations in Molenbeek, a dangerous neighborhood in> Brussels. There he speaks with a woman who has lived there for fifty years.> “When we came here it was a dream to live here. Everything was clean. All> Belgians among themselves, talking to each other. A real village feeling.”> Because of all the crime in her neighborhood, the woman hardly dares to> leave her street. And so the woman, like many, votes for a right-wing party.> “Macron may have won now, but who says Le Pen won’t win in four years?” Can> wonders about French politics.
‘Keep investing in community police officers’
There are no such problem neighborhoods in the Netherlands as in Paris, Swedenand Belgium, but if, for example, community police officers or facilitiesdisappear due to budget cuts, they can arise. “I also see this as a wake-upcall for Dutch policymakers. Watch this series and make sure this doesn’thappen in the Netherlands. Don’t give up,” he said in an interview with thenews agency _ANP. _
Watch the episode of Khalid & Sophie back on NPO.