Muna and Jamal, a couple of Belgian teachers, lead a peaceful life until the day when the coming to power of the extreme right leads to the secession of Flanders and the manu militari expulsion of all those who were not born on Flemish soil. Placed in a detention center, Jamal risks being sent back to Libya and Muna to Sudan, a country about which she knows nothing and where her activism against excision would immediately place her in the sights of the authorities. Their last chance to stay: participate in a reality TV show to try to win a residence permit.
Race for the audience
Here they are locked in a studio with 15 candidates from varied backgrounds: two Congolese brothers who survived the civil war, a Chinese woman and her father who run a chip shop, a single Moroccan mother… Everyone must prove that they are a “good Fleming” during vocabulary, cycling or cooking tests, concocted by a devious producer who does not shy away from any racist stereotype to make the public laugh or move. Without forgetting the use of violence to bring rebel candidates into line.
In the wake of Black Mirror and Squid Game, of which it claims influence, this series attempts, a little clumsily at times, to show the dramatic human consequences of a policy of exclusion and to denounce the cynicism of reality TV where the race for audiences takes precedence over respect for human beings.
If the characters lack nuance and the plot remains fairly predictable, The Best Immigrant has the merit of tackling crucial contemporary issues through a gripping story that mixes political satire, thriller and melodrama. As its creators indicate in the preamble to each episode, “this story is not based on real facts but on a reality that comes a little too close”.
