Who are you if you don’t really exist? Elisabetta Agyeiwaa was born 31 years ago, presumably in Brescia, Italy. There is a mother with a name, Agnes, and a nationality, Ghanaian. There is also an aunt who took the newborn baby girl to the Netherlands and took care of her for a few months. Her mother was supposed to come for her, but she never came. The aunt then brought her to Friesland, where she was taken in by Marianna. That’s pretty much what Elisabetta knows about her origins. There is no birth certificate, no name, no number, nothing. No registration of her to arise in Italy and therefore no evidence of her to exist in the Netherlands. She cannot marry or inherit, take out a mortgage and cannot travel.
She made the film about that insane condition Elisabetta Thursday night on TV. I can’t say I had fewer questions after seeing that film. Apparently her mother declared another girl at the registry office at the time. Ah, but then why? Did she ever get money in exchange for her child’s identity? And why did Marianne take her home as a baby, was that help or a (child) wish? Marianne would have known then that she was terminally ill. She passed away, leaving the child without an identity as the only heir. The deputy principal of the primary school still remembers what a situation that was then.
The fruitless conversations with the authorities about the how and why are interspersed with dreamy images of a little girl with a pink bicycle. In the voice-over, the adult Elisabetta addresses her mother. And for her she really only has one why-question: “Why couldn’t I be there?” A question so existential that the answer probably doesn’t exist either.
Something about terrorism
More nuisance bureaucracy and paper obstacles afterwards in Invisible walls from Argos. Mohamed goes on holiday with his wife and children to a resort in Antalya, Turkey. He is not allowed to enter the country. Because? Therefore. He spends four nights in a cell without windows and is then sent back to the Netherlands. Bilal from Brabant was on honeymoon. From Thailand to Sri Lanka and on to Istanbul. He was not allowed to enter the country there. Because? He would be adangerous man” to be. He will be banned from Turkey for the next five years. Said from Gouda, the only one who appears recognizable in the picture, does not enter the United States and Mexico. Because? He’s being accused of something. After questioning, he hears from what. Something about terrorism. He has documents from the Dutch government stating that he is never suspected of anything. Still, his name shows up somewhere in a system, he’s on an unofficially existing list and he has no idea what to do to get rid of it.
Nordin Lasfar late in argos see this happen to dozens of men. Men with no criminal record or criminal history who are stopped at airports because their name is associated with jihadism, terrorism or sympathies for it. Says Said, you’re better off being a murderer or drug dealer. Being called a terrorist isn’t a taint, it’s a death sentence. His family, his friends, everyone has turned away from him, he says.
Bilal is the only one who has found a tiny beginning that makes the big why clearer. He was once checked at customs after another man who may have been under surveillance. “I was asked if I was traveling in his company. Then I answered yes.” From that day on, the problems started. He seems guilty by association. You’d almost hope it was some insane conspiracy theory. At least you could laugh it off then.