Limits of Europe
Apolena Rychlíková / Czech Republic, Slovakia & France / 2024 / World Premiere / 98 min
A Czech journalist goes undercover in the European market for cheap labour. But documenting the outrageous conditions and social inequality on her own body while her family waits for her to return home comes at a personal cost.
An asparagus farm in Germany, a hotel in Ireland and a retirement home in France. Prominent Czech journalist Saša Uhlová has taken two years out of her schedule to go undercover with a hidden camera in the European cheap labour market, where low-wage Eastern European workers live in bunk beds and toil from dawn to dusk in Western societies. And it is not a part-time project Saša has embarked on. With body and soul, and with dedication and empathy for her new colleagues, she literally works her way into social inequality to document its consequences. She leaves her husband, her four children and her seriously ill father at home in the Czech Republic without the opportunity to be home for a visit – just like the millions of other invisible Eastern workers who keep the wheels turning in the West. But this uncompromising attitude comes at a personal cost. ‘The Limits of Europe’ is a courageous and unsentimental film that strikes a blow for human dignity across borders.