Walled In: The Politics of Building Barriers

Robert Frost's dictum that good fences make good neighbors is challenged here—albeit in a wry and engaging way—by French filmmaker Paul Moreira in this personal essay–style documentary. One might expect from the title that the subject would be about barriers that countries have constructed to ward off “invasions” (such as the wall the U.S. is building along the Mexican border, or that Israel has built in the West Bank) or to keep people in (like the Berlin Wall), but Moreira's target is smaller. He's interested in the walling-off of neighborhoods in urban areas to create enclaves of supposed safety, sheltering those who can afford to live in them from the danger posed by their fellow citizens. Moreira focuses on three cities—Toulouse, the most walled city in France; Rio de Janeiro, where the well-to-do inhabit blocks of condominiums that are luxurious, virtually self-sufficient communities; and Baghdad, where U.S. troops constructed elaborate obstacles to divide the city along sectarian lines, which the Iraqi government has largely kept in place. By interviewing locals on either side of the structures and scrutinizing official policies, Moreira offers acute observations about how the practice of using walls as a means of urban control has exacerbated social divisions and undermined order rather than enhancing it. And he does so in a gently probing manner that effectively illuminates issues raised by this new form of segregation. Recommended. Aud: C, P. (F. Swietek)