Refugees and the Grand Budapest Hotel

The Grand Budapest Hotel - Wes Anderson (2014)

‘There are still faint glimmers of civilization left in this barbaric slaughterhouse that was once known as humanity.’ – M. Gustave

The fictional state of Zubrowka is the setting for Wes Anderson’s 2014 comedy The Grand Budapest Hotel which takes place mostly in the 1930s, just prior to and during the occupation by the sinister ZZ (Zig Zags) and their death-squads. M. Gustave is the concierge of a well-respected hotel in the spa town of Nebelsbad, in the foothills of the Zubrowkian alps. The film centres on the story of M. Gustave and his newly recruited lobby boy, Zero. The two become embroiled in a conflict with a wealthy, sinister family, whose recently deceased matriarch has bequeathed M. Gustave a priceless painting.

A comedy might seem problematic as a space for commentary on discrimination and the plight of refugees, but by setting the story in a fictional central European country in the lead up to the Second World War, Anderson has been able to make political points without pointing the finger too blatantly. As M. Gustave rudely points out during the interview, his new employee has zero experience, zero education and zero family, he has arrived with nothing, both physically and figuratively. Zero is a refugee and torture survivor from (again fictional) Aq Salim al-Jabat, and is portrayed in the most positive manner throughout the film, his courage, pluckiness and loyalty are on constant display. Zero is stopped by armed patrols whilst travelling by train twice during the film, and asked to leave the carriage, leading M. Gustave to exclaim “You can’t arrest him simply because he’s a bloody immigrant. He hasn’t done anything wrong.” and engage the guards physically to defend Zero. The ‘faint glimmers of civilisation’ are found in those people who answer back to authority when discrimination is so blatantly at play.

But even his friend and protector M. Gustave is not perfect and, at a particularly tense moment, he loses his temper with Zero and the outburst that follows can only really be appreciated in full:

M. Gustave: Well, that’s just marvellous, isn’t it? I suppose this is to be expected back in – where do you come from again?

Zero: Aq Salim al-Jabat.

M. Gustave: Precisely. I suppose this is to be expected back in Aq Salim al-Jabat, where one’s prized possessions are a stack of filthy carpets and a starving goat, and one sleeps behind a tent-flap and survives on wild dates and scarabs – but it’s not how I trained you. What on God’s earth possessed you to leave the homeland where you very obviously belong and travel unspeakable distances to become a penniless immigrant in a refined, highly cultivated society that, quite frankly, could’ve gotten along very well without you?

Zero: The war.

M. Gustave: Say again?

Zero: Well you see, my father was murdered, and the rest of my family was executed by firing squad. Our village was burned to the ground. Those who managed to survive were forced to flee. I left – because of the war.

M. Gustave: Ah, I see. So you’re actually, really more of a refugee, in that sense.

Zero: Truly.

M. Gustave: Well I suppose I’d better take back everything I just said. What a bloody idiot I am. Pathetic fool. Goddamn selfish bastard. This is disgraceful – and it’s beneath the standards of the Grand Budapest…

Here we see M. Gustave repeating typical attacks levelled against refugees and immigrants – they are culturally different, inferior even, they can’t be expected to live up to European standards and have no positive impact on the country they move to. Zero has been confronted with violence in his home country, forced to flee and encounters still more problems in his new home, due to his background. Even his friends can fall into the trap of seeing his (perceived) shortcomings as the result of his ethnic and geographical background. This conversation also emphasises that dialogue between local inhabitants and immigrants/refugees can result in deeper understanding and therefore support and friendship. As Anderson said in a clip for the UNHCR, “The movie is a fiction of course, but the character is modelled on a real person and his story is very similar to many other real people’s. No-one chooses to be a refugee. Refugees are people like us, under extreme conditions, when they lose their homes and families when catastrophic circumstances force them to flee.”

The Grand Budapest Hotel does not tell us anything particularly new about the plight of refugees, nor does it focus on this experience for its content. However, by making these issues form part of a more peripheral theme within the film, the subtleties of discrimination, both political and personal, come through in a natural and thought-provoking way.

References

Anderson, Wes and Guinness, Hugo, The Grand Budapest Hotel Screenplay (2014) [accessed 1 March 2017]

Anderson, Wes, Wes Anderson Shares a Refugee Story from The Grand Budapest Hotel [Youtube Video] United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), 11 June 2014 www.youtube.com/watch?v=u_4ZqtDSP4c [accessed 1 March 2017]