Director Fernand Melgar’s documentary about the deportation prison Frambois in Geneva.

Picture gallery

After his film La forteresse, about a immigration centre for asylum seekers, Lausanne's Fernand Melgar is still keeping a close eye on the tactics surrounding Switzerland’s policies on foreign nationals. This time around Melgar looks at the other end of the system for those hoping for a better life in Switzerland: the deportation prison Frambois in Geneva, where undocumented immigrants wait to be deported back to their homelands. The focus is on the daily lives of 6 of these unlucky individuals behind the prison's walls, including interviews with their guards – an unforgiving view of the process, up until the day of deportation.

Vol special also observes the “good” and “humane” guards, letting them speak and appear in a good light – and letting the audience judge the deportation process for themselves at the same time. For this reason Paolo Branco, jury president of the Locarno Film Festival, claimed, amazingly enough, that Vol spécial is a "fascist" film.