GRENZENLOS GESCHICHTEN VON FREIHEIT & FREUNDSCHAFT | LIMITLESS STORIES OF FREEDOM & FRIENDSHIP

What can films do for children in refugee and crisis situations? Can film work alleviate suffering or even give hope? And what can the film do without limits – stories of freedom and friendship that go beyond the mere screening and give the children ideas for their future, hope and energy?

Two years ago the Goethe-Institut launched the project under the title Missing Movies. A number of non-verbal short films should be made that can be used in refugee camps. Following an international tender, young filmmakers from Syria, Germany, Colombia and Iran were selected in close cooperation with Bildersturm Filmproduktion to deal with these questions. Some of them have already had experience of flight and displacement themselves or have already worked specifically with children in emergency situations and developed a precise sense of where to start with their films.

Each of the seven films with dramaturgical accompaniment by Bildersturm captures the needs of the refugee children in its own idiosyncratic way – as a feature film, documentary film and animation film. Each of these films takes on a different facet of existence without a home or without family, without friends or without your own toys – and supposedly also without a future. And each of these short films offers a small perspective on life for a duration of 8-12 minutes.

Birgit Schulz (Bildersturm) combined the seven cinematic miniatures into an episode film by composing documentary material from a Syrian filmmaker from Lebanon, Jordan and Greece. The wishes and dreams of the children, which are reflected in the episodes, meet a reality that seems timeless without denying a future. A poetic melancholy almost arises, broken up again and again by the energy of the children who simply do not want to linger in the desolate worlds.

The episodes: Die Lupe / The Magnifying Glass by Nazgol Emami, My very favorite favorite thing / A thing about me (Sara & Moris / Jumana) by Diana Menestrey & Camilo Colmenares, Die Pause / The Break by Madeleine Dallmeyer, Riese / Giant by Johanna Bentz, Abdullah by Khaled Nawal, Der magische Ballon / The Magic Balloon by Sandra Dajani