Enemies Within (Ennemis intérieurs) is a 2016 short film (27 minutes) from France, directed by Selim Azzazi.
The setting is the mid-1990s. An unnamed Algerian man who looks to be fifty-ish is applying for French citizenship. He was born in Algeria when it was still considered part of metropolitan France, he identifies as a Frenchman, and he's applying to make it official.
He is questioned by a younger man, also of Algerian extraction but a French citizen. The interrogator starts off with the sort of harmless, rote questions that are asked of naturalization applicants, like what the French motto is or what are the major rivers of France. The questions soon get more pointed, however. It appears that the interrogator regards the applicant as a security risk. After a series of increasingly insulting, degrading questions, the interrogator starts demanding the names of the other Muslims that the applicant used to hang out with after worshipping at the mosque.
Tropes:
- An Immigrant's Tale: One Algerian man trying to gain French citizenship, and the degradation and humiliation he has to undergo at the hands of an unsympathetic immigration official.
- Call-Back: The last person seen in the montage of interviewees at the end is the one guy prominently featured as a fellow guest at the meetings the applicant went to. The implication is that the interrogator has acted on the names that the applicant gave him and is hauling the men in for questioning.
- Category Traitor: The interrogator is also an ethnic Algerian. The applicant calls him out on this, saying that his fellow cops will always regard him as a "sand n***r" and a "spook" and that they'll never accept him. This seems to touch a nerve as the interrogator loses his cool for the first time, and starts threatening the applicant's son.
- Fake Video Camera View: There's a brief black and white, low-fidelity shot of the applicant, which is revealed to be from the interrogator's own video camera. The film then ends with a series of shots of people forced to sit down in front of the interrogator's camera.
- Flashback: Brief flashbacks to the applicant as a boy with his father, as well as brief shots of the applicant with his fellow Algerians at the meetings which so arouse the suspicions of the interrogator.
- Manly Tears: The applicant breaks down crying in his car after the humiliating meeting with the interrogator, which ends with the interrogator threatening the applicant's son.
- Minimalist Cast: Only three speaking parts in the movie, namely the applicant, the interrogator, and a couple of lines from another immigration official who seems to really loathe Muslims.
- Nameless Narrative: None of the characters are named.
- Speech-Centric Work: One long, extremely tense immigration interview.
- Time-Passes Montage: The film ends with a Fake Video Camera View montage of more citizenship applicants, all sitting down for doubtlessly unpleasant encounters with the interrogator.
