‘The Interview’ uses VR to put you in the role of a caseworker in an immigration office. It is your first day on the job and a supervisor with more experience will guide you through the day. You will interview four Afghan asylum seekers. At the end of each interview, it is your job to decide if the applicants can stay or if they should be asked to return to their country of origin. How easy is it to make that decision when the person is sitting in front of you in the same room?
Production funding by Flemish Audiovisual Fund (VAF) and MDM Mitteldeutsche Medienförderung (D) // produced by Minds Meet (Brussels) and hug films (Halle) // Developed during Watch Docs and Future Docs 2018, Warsaw // Pitched at East Doc Platform, Prague, March 2019 // Selected for IDFA’s Doclab Academy, Amsterdam, November 2019.
Festivals: XR competition Thessaloniki Documentary Film Festival, 2024 // Winner of the XR competition of the Kurzsüchtig Film Festival, Leipzig.
Thom Vander Beken 