Festival Films A-Z

Zapanka
Leona Goldstein
Manteuffelstr. 41
10997 Berlin
Deutschland
Mobil: +49 179 52 99 340
E-Mail: info@zapanka.net

Leona Goldstein

Leona Goldstein, Thilo Schmidt

www.proasyl.de
www.zapanka.net


Leona Goldstein
Manteuffelstr. 41
10997 Berlin
Deutschland
Mobil: +49 179 52 99 340
E-Mail: info@zapanka.net

Synopsis

The Waldsieversdorf asylum centre in the middle of the Brandenburg forest is hard to find. The next village is four kilometres away on foot. Isolated from the world, civil war refugees from Cameroon, Iraq, Vietnam, Algeria, and other war-torn countries live at the centre as they await their fate. They talk about their ideas of utopia, their escape to Germany and the surprises Germany had in store for them.

"I think this is a secret prison. Except that we're not in security here. They take you, put you in jail, giving you no right to go here or there, no right to work. They give you something to eat, you eat and then you sleep. Life just can't go on like this," says Abdoulaye from Burkina Faso. In 2003, the refugees were sent to this centre after a centre in Münchberg, Märkisch-Oderland was shut down. They were told it was a temporary solution. After two and a half years living in an unrenovated pre-fabricated high-rise in the middle of the woods, the inhabitants expressed their protest in a press release. They described their living conditions as unacceptable. They protested against the 12-kilometre walk to the next supermarket and the four-kilometre walk to the next bus stop, necessary to conduct any administrative procedure.

The filmmaker, Leona Goldstein, speaks with refugees from Cameroon, Iraq, Vietnam, Algeria and other war-torn countries about their ideas of utopia, their escape to Germany and the surprises Germany had in store for them, as well as their personal forms of resistance. Le Heim resulted from co-operation between the Brandenburg Refugee Association (F.I.B.) and the refugee council.

Biography

Transit Heimat (2004), Le Heim (2005), Hold the line (2005), Au clair de la lune... (2006), Realites Francafricaines (2006), 6m2 Rechtsstaat (2007)

Filmography

Transit Heimat (2004), Le Heim (2005), Au clair de la lune... (2006)