It has been 8 years since Tania illegally emigrated from Russia to Belgium with her son Ivan. While living in extreme anxiety, before she knew it, she speaks Russian on the street. This causes her to be imprisoned. There, she faces the shocking reality for illegal immigrants. [Illegal] was invited to the Directors’ Fortnight of Cannes 2010 with its new perspective toward illegal immigration problems which aroused from the enlargement of the EU. The story is more dramatic and touching because it shows a maternal love that the mother desperately tries to maintain for her young son. The scenes that expose the inhumanity and falsity of ‘Voluntary Repatriation’ are quite shocking. One of the most important roles of the film that realists, descendants of Lumiere, have emphasized is ‘the medium of recording reality’. And the film from Europe have constantly talked about illegal immigrants over the past few years and this could be the keen awareness of the film makers creating a film in the term of ‘recording reality’. This film re-considers the results of globalization and blocking such as nationalism, ultra-nationalism, xenophobia and illegal immigration. (RHEE Soue-won)