Louisiana Mees-Fongang captures the beauty and the sorrow of a community centre for unaccompanied teenage refugees in Belgium, in her captivating debut documentary How Do You Spell Home?
In her debut documentary feature, which premiered in the Luminous strand at the 2023 International Documentary Festival Amsterdam (IDFA), Belgian filmmaker Louisiana Mees-Fongang clearly explores the true meaning of “home” for her audiences. The first scene in her film introduces a girl singing a traditional song in a room adorned with frames hanging on its light green wall. This room serves as a center for unaccompanied minor refugees in Belgium. The film raises questions: Did she miss her home, or does she consider the song as a home for herself?
In many ways, the center in Juneco, home to 15 young refugees from countries such as Afghanistan, Sri Lanka, and Eritrea who are growing up without their families, is not merely a place for shelter. It is a space where friendships are formed. One of the refugees from Sri Lanka ran away from her parents due to the strict society, while a boy from Afghanistan fled to Bosnia before reaching here.
Director Mees-Fongang, who also operated the camera carefully, skillfully filmed her story, blending incredible intimacy between the staff and the residents. Despite the challenges they have faced during their time at the shelter, the film combines this with confidence and lush photographs, capturing the light green and pink walls to the roses in the garden, creating beautiful compositions with every observation. This allows the story to grow in purely visual terms.
As Mees-Fongang captures every moment at Juneco, whether it is warm bonding or intense quarrels between the teenagers and their staff, there are uncertainties and fears about their “home”; when they reach 18 years old, they must leave the center. For those who have been granted asylum in Belgium, they can look for a home of their own, but for those whose applications have been rejected, home is no longer guaranteed. This visually appealing debut documentary by Louisiana Mees-Fongang depicts a beautiful yet heartbreaking relationship between humans and a place through the eyes of minor teenage refugees with uncertain futures.
How Do You Spell Home? is produced by the Belgian outlet Diplodokus (Maarten Bernaerts, Barbara Dyck) and is in co-production with Rayuela Productions (Laurence Buelens) and VRT (Simon Vrebos, Tom Bleyaert).
