Director: Aline Fischer, Germany

Mohammad escapes the war in Lebanon. He thinks he has found a safe haven with his older brother in Germany. Unfortunately his world has been turned upside-down and things are not as they should be. His brother is too unreliable and is suffering elevated highs and then falling deep into dark depressions. That sets him off in search of a male role model as mentor in this new and strange world. He starts with something that he likes to do which are motorcycles. As an apprentice motor mechanic, he joins a garage with a tough, tight gang who doesn’t entirely accept him. Although the boss likes him and tells him heroic stories of the foreign legion, there is always a feeling of mistrust among his colleagues.Director Aline Fischer‘s background in political science and sociology come through, as she takes the ever-present theme of a refugee in distress and combines it with the universal search for the heroic archetype: What does it mean to be a man? How can he be a hero in a foreign land? Who is able to play the role of his mentor? And does he even have a chance? This film asks many questions which might be helpful hints to us, the viewer, living here in Germany, to see into the eyes of refugees and understand the plight of two worlds that are clashing together and not always with positive results. (SRS)