A Tale of Refugees in Germany | DW Documentary

These three men all came to Germany in 2015 as refugees. Although they all arrived in Berlin at the same time, their lives have taken very different paths.

This documentary tells the stories of three refugees who can be taken as representative of the many who have found shelter in Germany. They were chosen at random after their arrival in Berlin in March 2015, and journalist Matthias Deiß spent the following two years filming what happened to them. The result is an interim balance - two years after the wave of refugees reached Germany.

Their lives in their new home could hardly be more different, which is why they are so typical. Mohammad Alabdulla sees his youngest son, Ali, for the first time at Schönefeld Airport, having left Syria shortly before his birth in 2014. When he is allowed to bring his wife and children over later, he can already speak German, has his own apartment and is doing his first internship. The long wait was hard but Mohammad has achieved his goal of giving his family a better future. In passing, the film also shows the impact of refugee policies in the real world. Complicated and opaque official decision-making structures often renders the protagonists powerless and subject to officialdom. Protracted procedures can lead to depression, resignation and hopelessness. For one of them there is a court case on an assault charge - and the third still doesn’t have any papers and is stuck in Berlin’s Office for Health and Social Affairs 16 months after his arrival.
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