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This is so ironic. There is already a movie (Rien a Declarer / Nothing to declare) whose main premise is a guy spending his nights slightly moving the border be
by 317070 5y ago
This is so ironic. There is already a movie (Rien a Declarer / Nothing to declare) whose main premise is a guy spending his nights slightly moving the border between France and Belgium: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q6MljTh0kws https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q6MljTh0kws (This extract is French only unfortunately :( )
Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=piQPaxlZWu4 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=piQPaxlZWu4 (With English subtitles)
But, as someone who grew up less than 100 meters from this border, I'm pretty sure this stuff actually happens all over.
- 8ytecoder 5y agoOne of the most complex borders with hundreds of enclaves and people living there with no clear idea on which country they belong to used to be the India-Bangladesh border. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/India%E2%80%93Bangladesh_enclaves https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/India%E2%80%93Bangladesh_encla...
- aasasd 5y agoBelgium has such a place of its own: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baarle-Hertog https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baarle-Hertog However India-Bangladesh has enclaves of a higher nesting order.
- athenot 5y agoWow this is crazy. But at the same time, it could be an interesting solution for other disputed borders around the world. Leaders are often obsessed with drawing a clean line between 2 areas but reality is a lot more messy and nuanced.
- gwright 5y agoThis is another interesting one. A part of Russia that sits on the Baltic Sea disconnected from Russia proper: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kaliningrad_Oblast https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kaliningrad_Oblast
- jacquesm 5y agoOne day that will cause a major geopolitical headache. And now every time I move around in that area it causes me a huge detour. Oh, and I ended up accidentally at the Belarussian border one day (note to self: update your satnav).
- lizknope 5y agoThat was basically East Prussia and they forcibly removed the Germans.
- blahedo 5y agoAnd the city of Kaliningrad might be more familiar in this crowd under its old (Prussian) name of Königsberg (as in "Bridges of").
- mey 5y agoLittle video on that https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=r-aIzkvPwFo https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=r-aIzkvPwFo
- simondotau 5y agoI don’t even have to click the link to know that it’s that episode of Map Men.
- baybal2 5y agoAllegedly it's because local rulers were playing carrom, and were betting villages. Once Britishers came, Bengal was separated from the rest of India along their borders of their territories.
- ad404b8a372f2b9 5y agoAaah I was going to post that :D! It stars one of my favorite comedic actors, Benoît Poelvoorde who is belgian. I'd encourage anyone with a taste for foreign films to check out "C'est arrivé près de chez vous" (Man Bites Dog in english) another great movie of his (features lots of violence and serious themes, not a family movie).
- smnrchrds 5y ago> Benoît Poelvoorde It looks like a very French first name and a very Dutch last name. Is that common in Belgium? Is there a significant overlap between the linguistic communities of Belgium?
- ddnb 5y agoYes there is, another example: Jean-Claude Van Cauwenberghe is a Walloon politician, Geert Bourgeois is a Flemish one.
- lovemenot 5y agoLet's not forget Benoit Mandelbrot, who may have discovered fractals while staring at a map of the Belgian border.
- cinntaile 5y agoIt depends on what you mean. There is no significant linguistic overlap. There are some exceptions such as if you live near the language border. But last names ending up in the other side of the country is not that uncommon, people move around and some end up getting kids there.
- gillesjacobs 5y agoThere's a significant overlap in naming and there's a lot of professional language contact. But culturally and politically, the linguistic communities are divided.
- sjrd 5y agoThose combinations are indeed quite common in Belgium. Another example: myself :-p (Sébastien Doeraene).
- gumby 5y agoI have a friend who grew up in France (well, except for her kitchen which was in Belgium); she went to school in Belgium, crossing the border (which in those days had a gate) twice each day. I just imagine the guards opening the gate for a little girl with a school satchel. The bollards which held the gate are still there.
- elliekelly 5y agoHave you considered moving them a few meters into France? Maybe your friend can squeeze in a Belgian living room, too.
- gumby 5y agoThese are serious bollards, and I think she'd rather move them into Belgium. Hmm, her husband is Belgian, if moving is involved you're right: he might want them to head into France. Perhaps they could each move one of them!
- nucleardog 5y agoSounds like the setup for some wacky sitcom hijinks. Marc is from Belgium, Emma is from France. When it came time to decide where to live, they couldn't come to an agreement so compromised and live on the border. But what they didn't know is that neither of them ever truly gave up the fight. Tune in for their late night heists and hijinks as they try to move into their preferred country... by moving the border! Fridays at 8pm on the WEB.
- gumby 5y agoI certainly know two people who would watch that show.
- hellbannedguy 5y agoNetflix will be in touch.
- selimthegrim 5y ago
- NicoJuicy 5y agoJust by curiosity, i grew up in Alveringem ( Belgium, about 30 minutes from Dunkerque. Next to the French border) and still regularly go to Hondschote ( water :p ). Where did you grew up and are you still regularly there? Ps. If it's near, here's something unique about the neighborhood: https://www.google.com/amp/s/sniperinmahwah.wordpress.com/2014/09/25/hft-in-my-backyard-ii/amp/ https://www.google.com/amp/s/sniperinmahwah.wordpress.com/20...
- 317070 5y agoI grew up in Warneton/Waasten, but I live in London these days.
- yumraj 5y agoThanks for sharing, the trailer and the clip before were very funny, saying as someone who probably knows just 2-3 words of French. Will have to see if it is streaming somewhere..