The Returned is a French drama series created in 2012; this was at a time when ISIS began to become a threat to the Western world, when Syrian children and families homes were destroyed and their homes become a war zone, and where they (rightfully) began to flee the terror to what they hoped would be a welcoming and accepting society. France is one of the most heavily affected countries by terrorism in recent years, and was also one of the most migrated to countries at the beginning of the conflicts in Syria; whilst it is racist and incorrect to have these apprehensions towards refugees, it is certainly understandable that they would have had some apprehensions towards these migrants. 'The Returned' is a true reflection of this and shows non-French people what it was like for these refugees coming to France, and also acts as a telling-off or wakeup call for those who don't necessarily treat the refugees with respect or understanding. The show does this through the use of 'The Returned'; a group of people who have been spontaneously resurrected (to quote Jerome), and come back to the town in which they lived and died in hopes of picking up where they left off.
The shows use of 'The Helping Hand' certainly reflects its ideologies towards the refugee crisis, as it becomes a more and more poignant setting as the series progresses. Whilst it is initially used for group counselling sessions, as the Returned become more threatened by the living, the families and the returned use it as a safe zone. The fact that the families/loved ones of The Returned choose to go there as a safe haven instead of the authorities could reflect the way the government are responding to the refugee crisis and the way in which they deal with the racism refugees face. This is because of the role which Pierre takes on as the show progresses, as he is the owner of the helping hand and adopts an authority-like role as more Returned find refuge at the Helping Hand; in the last episode of season one, Lucy wants to talk to the living about the Returned, and Pierre insists that he goes with Thomas (chief of police) to do this. Pierre clearly does this as he feels that Thomas lacks the compassion to make a deal with Lucy or guard the Returned from what they have been running from. This links to the refugee crisis as it shows how the government's main goal is to protect themselves, not the refugees; Thomas disregards their ordeal and only seeks to better himself/his family, and so his only goal is to get Chloe back and doesn't care about what the Horde do to the Returned, therefore showing how (whilst they have accepted refugees) the government are quite tokenistic in the sense that they take the refugees because they have to, but once they are there they don't really care what happens to them.
The living tend to treat the Returned with a lack of trust; one bereaved parent screams at Camille and blames her for the suicide of two parents as well as her own miscarriage. I feel that this again represents the way refugees in modern society are treated, as there is stereotypes of refugees being sinister and 'stealing jobs'-- Camille didn't tell the parents to kill themselves, she didn't do anything to harm the baby, and the refugees aren't 'stealing' anything; if they are better qualified for a job, why shouldn't they get it? It also shows how refugees are made out to be scapegoats; people in society believe that all refugees are terrorists, just because a minority of them actually are. The way the living don't really give the returned a chance to live in their society shows how refugees in real life are scapegoated, because of the apprehensions and misjudgements that people make about them.
The setting of the show is equally important when discussing the refugee crisis, as the town in many ways is its own character; it is isolated and could sometimes be seen as a remote island, as there is no mention of the outside world as it were. The mise en scene of the natural setting connotes the innocence of the town itself, therefore suggesting the flood is a sort of backlash from nature at the human corruption of civilisation and the town. The fact that all who have returned were residents of the town before death shows how they should rightfully live there, so makes the living's austerity even more wrong; why shouldn't the returned be able to live in their own home? I feel that this is an allegorical message which suggests that the world was here before humans, so dictating where refugees can and cannot live is incorrect; we don't choose to be born into conflict, so why can't we move somewhere safe?
the show us a way if re-contextualising the issue to make people look at it from the bigger picture, it offers a different perspective. The show enforces empathy ad personal identification with the returned. This is done by audience positioning, for example we spend the first episode mostly with Camille to see what it is like for her to return, showing how she is a normal, non threatening, naive girl. This also makes the reactions of Lena and Jerome seem more overdramatic, as they are hostile to Camille at the beginning; but why? She is the same girl they once knew and loved, what's different? This encourages the spectator to realise we are all just human; refugees aren't evil and they don't have any other intention than to be able to live and work in a safe environment, just like us.
The show uses visual imagery to reflect media imagery; the Horde represent the chaos and fear caused by society's reactions to the arrivals of refugees (fear, division, blame). Again this makes the spectator take a step back and realise that they probably are being overdramatic, and that the refugees aren't as evil as we believe.
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