Locked In

Refugee Poetry

April 2016 •Kurdish

The Kurdish Iraqi poet and actor Zeravan Khalil travels with his dog through an Alpine gorge after fleeing from IS war and genocide. As he remembers the abomination, he writes a poem with the title “You drive me mad” in Kurmanji Kurdish. In his home country, Yazidic Kurds are forbidden to work in his profession. Then he eats his apple and wanders through Europe’s middle with more hope.

I Am You

September 2019 •Persian

The story of Masoud, who is trying to emigrate to Europe to make a better life for himself, his mother and his fiancé. After embarking on a difficult and dangerous immigration journey with his best friend, Masoud meets a pregnant doctor and an old man on the way and they band together. Having to flee because of war and terror, Masoud tries to reach his goal with a hopeful but painful journey.

Opération Turquoise

November 2007 •French

Stelios

December 2024 •Greek

The touching story of a child from a Pontic refugee family who managed to survive and thrive against all odds, thanks to his immense talent and resilience in the face of social and personal challenges. Music, love, family, friends, fishing, creativity, people of the night, hardcore fans, and intense conflicts come together to create the mosaic of his life. This film is a tribute to legendary singer, Stelios Kazantzidis, whose voice touched the hearts of all Greeks around the world. A film for those who loved him and those who wish to discover him.

Happy End

June 2017 •French

A well-to-do French family living in Calais deal with a series of setbacks and crises while paying little attention to the grim conditions in the refugee camps within a few miles of their home.

Ru

November 2023 •French

After a dangerous sea crossing and a stay in a camp in Malaysia, the young Vietnamese Tinh and her family are accepted as refugees in Canada and arrive in Montreal where they begin their new life. But for Tinh, adapting has its share of difficulties.

Green Border

September 2023 •Polish

In the treacherous and swampy forests that make up the so called “green border” between Belarus and Poland, refugees from the Middle East and Africa trying to reach the European Union are trapped in a geopolitical crisis cynically engineered by Belarusian dictator Alexander Lukashenko. In an attempt to provoke Europe, refugees are lured to the border by propaganda promising easy passage to the EU. Pawns in this hidden war, the lives of Julia, a newly minted activist who has given up her comfortable life, Jan, a young border guard, and a Syrian family intertwine.

Capernaum

September 2018 •Arabic

After running away from his negligent parents, committing a violent crime and being sentenced to five years in jail, a hardened, streetwise 12-year-old Lebanese boy sues his parents in protest of the life they have given him.

Hidden Children

January 2004 •Italian

This is a true story about forty Jewish children on their way to Palestine, who were blocked by the German and Italian occupation of Yugoslavia in 1941. Before finding a haven at Villa Emma in Nonantola in northern Italy, where they arrived on June 17, 1942, the children spent several adventurous months in Slovenia, caught up in the ongoing fight between the partisans and the Italian army. In April 1943, another 33 children, some from the Balkans, others from France, joined the original group. All were orphans who had lost their parents in concentration camps and had subsequently been smuggled out of Germany by Recha Freier, a well-known Zionist. The group ranged in age from six to twenty one and settled in at Villa Emma with their chaperones and teachers, Josef Indig, Marco Schoky and the pianist Boris Jochverdson.

Skeet

September 2024 •English

After being released from prison, Billy Skinner returns to his low-income neighbourhood feeling like a fish out of water; the area has changed dramatically, and what was once a predominantly white neighbourhood is now mostly occupied by refugee families.

Harkis

March 2008 •French

1972, in the south of France, deep in the forest, a family with meager luggage discovers the new camp where they will live. Despite the camp leader's overt paternalism, the Harkis lead a difficult life without real freedom. A life of poverty and guardianship that Leila, the Benamars' eldest daughter, rejects. She is at the age of rebellion, and also of her first love. For her, her father, Saïd, scarred by war and exile, accustomed to giving in, owes nothing to the French who enlisted him in the French army, then failed to protect them in Algeria. Thanks to her, with the help of a peasant couple, he will raise his head and the Benamars will leave the camp for a nearby farm.

Land of empty promises

April 2022 •German

Combat Girls

June 2011 •German

Marisa, a 20-year-old German girl, hates foreigners, Jews, cops, and everyone she finds guilty for the decline of her country. She provokes, drinks, fights and her next tattoo will be a portrait of Adolf Hitler. But Marisa's convictions begin to crumble when she meets a young Afghan refugee, and she learns that the black and white principles of her gang are not the only way.

The Silence

May 2016 •Italian

Fatma and her mother are Kurdish refugees living in Italy. One day at the hospital, Fatma learns her mother has breast cancer.

Limbo

September 2020 •English

An offbeat observation of refugees waiting to be granted asylum on a fictional remote Scottish island. It focuses on Omar, a young Syrian musician who is burdened by the weight of his grandfather’s oud, which he has carried all the way from his homeland.

Si-o-se Pol

December 2015 •English

Released from prison and terminally ill, Parvis Karimpour is determined to be reunited with his daughter, Nasrin, who fled Iran for Europe many years before. Crossing the Mediterranean only to be unceremoniously dumped on the Spanish coast, Karimpour makes for Madrid in search of his erstwhile only child. Along the way he meets failed Italian pianist Fabrizio and spoilt German dreamer Almut – fellow migrants struggling to make their way in a Europe beset by economic turmoil. The search for Nasrin lends Karimpour’s new friends a sense of purpose, and the unlikely threesome take up her trail.

Ali & the Ball

June 2008 •English

8-year-old Ali lives in a refugee detention centre with his mother and little sister Fatima. When his mother's precious knitting needles are confiscated, Ali is forced to take action. Desperate to save his family, he hatches a plan using a ball and the help of a girl on the other side of the razor-wire fence.

Dooman River

August 2010 •Korean

Chang-ho, 12, becomes friends with a North-Korean immigrant about the same age who just crossed the Dooman river, border between North-Korea and China. His mute sister and his wise grandfather accompany him through a series of misfortunes.

Meteor Street

February 2016 •German

Mohammed, an 18-year old refugee, lives with his chaotic older brother Lakhdar in a rundown apartment in Berlin. Several years after his family fled the war in Lebanon and moved to Berlin, the sensitive young man still needs to set foot in the harsh male environment, trying to find his place between his brother and his german motorcycle workshop colleagues.

The Weather Inside

September 2015 •German

A luxury hotel in a conflict zone. Development aid worker Dorothea begins an affair with a young drifter, Alec, but what starts as sweet distraction brings her dangerously close to losing control.