Fortress Europe

UMR – ‘unac­com­pa­nied minor refugees’ is how they are referred to tech­ni­cal­ly. Who are these chil­dren and young­sters who so fre­quent­ly are forced to leave their homes as a result of inhu­man living con­di­tions in their home coun­tries and make a long and lonely jour­ney into the unknown? With painful mem­o­ries as lug­gage they flee in the hope of find­ing some place in the world where there is no danger to life and limb and life can simply be lived. In Hori­zon Zone we get to know Alseny and Joe, two of these young­sters whose long jour­ney led them to the asylum seek­ers’ deten­tion centre in Stuttgart. Here they find them­selves con­front­ed with the new chal­lenge of German bureau­cra­cy and pro­ce­dures. The film approach­es its pro­tag­o­nists in a sen­si­tive manner and, in addi­tion to their day to day life, it gives visual expres­sion to their thoughts, dreams and memories. 

It is impos­si­ble to get a job in Benin if you don’t have any con­nec­tions, Jonas and Roland relate. They are both over 25, yet nei­ther has a job or … read more

Tarifa, a city in the south of Spain, Europe‘s south­ern­most point, early morn­ing. The wind surfers sail across the clear blue sea and the first tourists are taking their places … read more