After acknowledging his own immigrant background, Malle, tries to present the range of immigrant experiences in the US during the 1980's. In an attempt to be comprehensive, the film includes interviews with migrant workers and illegal entrants along the Mexican border, conversations with an enterprising Indian motel owner, coverage of industrious African and Asian families in the cities, an extensive interview with the first Costa Rican astronaut, visits with Cuban exiles in Miami, several conversations with West Indian poet Derek Walcott, an extended portrait of the deposed Nicaraguan General Sоmoza (the surviving brother of Anastasio Somoza Debayle) and his extended family. The film finishes with a brief visit to the Russian Jewish community in Brooklyn, NY.
Director, screenwriter and producer. Born in France in 1932. He studied political sciences at the Sorbonne, but left it for IDHEC (Institut des hautes etudes cinematographiques). He started as a cameraman and co-director in Jacques Yves Cousteau’s film “The Silent World” (1956) which was awarded with Oscar and Golden Palm at Cannes Festival. The first independent work was the film “Elevator to the Gallows” (1958). The next film “The Lovers” (1958) with Jeanne Moreau in the title role was taken controversially because of erotic scenes, rather revealing as for that time. He broke the taboo topics in his following films “The Fire Within” (1963), “Murmur of the Heart” (1971), “Lacombe Lucien” (1974). Malle, who worked both in France and the United States, also belongs to the directors of the French “new wave” who were inherent in striving to adapt their own work experience and feeling. However, unlike other members of the “new wave”, he always aspired to variety of themes and genres. Malle also worked as a documentary director. Among his documentary films are Phantom India (1969), Humain, trop humain (1974), Place de la republique (1974), God's Country (1985) and others. Louis Malle died in Los Angeles in 1995.
