Hot Docs

WINNER - Special Jury Prize (International Feature), Hot Docs 2011

Aside from the odd lost bag or missed connection, the day-to-day operations of an airport go mostly unnoticed by travellers. Step behind the Authorized Personnel Only doors of Milan’s Malpensa Airport, however, and a very different world comes into view. Post-9/11 air travel has clearly tightened controls, subjecting people, documents and cargo to far more rigorous screening. Filmmakers Martina Parenti’s and Massimo D’Anolfi’s keenly observant cameras capture the drama of these increased measures at work, along with the crushing bureaucracy, paperwork and sheer boredom they create. Procedures like a routine immigration interview become almost instantly invasive and nearly violent, while another customs inspector ploddingly examines each claw of an entire crate of live lobsters. A drug bust unravels inside the terminal, while a woman likely displaced by new immigration policies takes up residence in a public toilet. Castle is an eye-opening look at the new era of security. - Myrocia Watamaniuk