When you push the heavy door that leads to the building where Elyaas Ehsas lives, you leave behind the clamor of this street in Seine-Saint-Denis. We find ourselves in the small deserted courtyard of a disused building where he is the only resident. After slipping through a maze of dilapidated corridors, we arrive at the studio he occupies in the attic. The walls are cracked with mold, which are trying to camouflage frames without paintings and another, larger, representing a photo autographed by a filmmaker friend. On his desk, a few books and a computer.
"Welcome to my home!"
launches the young man with the round face. It is not quite "at home": he lives there illegally.
"For now anyway, because the authorities have evacuated another squat nearby, and this one is next on the list," he
fears.
Since he fled Afghanistan in 2015, Elyaas Ehsas's life has been marked by deadlines.
"And hardships, too: I can barely remember what a normal life is, without
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