Refugee crisis reflected at Cannes Film Festival

One of the main topics at this year's Cannes Film Festival seems to be the migrant issue. We have already seen two pictures on the topic and others will follow, among which one is the highly expected title of the year, Michael Haneke's "Happy End."

World famous actress Vanessa Redgrave arrived in Cannes to present her first film as its director at the age of 80. 

In her film "Sea Sorrow," political issues and personal issues are intertwined. She departs from the famous photograph of the dead body of three-year-old Syrian boy Alan Kurdi found lying on a Turkish coast, and travels to different cities of Europe to talk to refugees from Syria, Afghanistan and Guinea.

Redgrave's main intention is to influence the public opinion in Europe, so that people could exert pressure to change the policies of their governments, especially the U.K. She conveys her opinion through interviews with refugees as well as officials. 

She underlines the fact that the ideals put forward in various conventions such as the "Universal Declaration of Human Rights" adopted by U.N. after the Second World War, the "European Convention of Human Rights" declared by European Parliament in 1951 and the 1989 "U.N. Convention on the Rights of the Child," are being undermined by European governments.

To bring forward a wider appreciation to the issue, Redgrave contrasts the present day events with events of the Second World War using documentary footage and interviews with politicians and human rights defenders such as British politician Alf Dubs who had escaped Prague as part of "Kindertransport" in 1939. 

Redgrave remembers her own childhood when she was evacuated from London and separated from her family during war. 

She accuses the British...