Nowhere in Europe
Germany, Poland | 2009 | 60 Minutes and 98 Minutes | Chechen, Russian
A stirring documentary film telling four stories from the perspective of people who come from Chechnya to Europe and want to stay. Because they have no other choice.
The Chechen war has almost disappeared from our consciousness, but violence still reigns there. The conflict has spread across the entire North Caucasus. Thousands of people are fleeing the brutal dictatorship of the despot Ramzan Kadyrov installed by Moscow. The European Union is the destination of many refugees. They make up the second largest group of asylum seekers here.
In “Nowhere in Europe” filmmaker Kerstin Nickig tells four very personal stories of asylum seekers from the North Caucasus. She accompanied the refugees for a year as they tried to take the “asylum” offer of the Geneva Convention literally. The refugees are constantly confronted with the defence mechanisms of European asylum policy. This has different effects in Poland, Austria, Ukraine and Germany.
“Nowhere in Europe” is a stirring documentary film that shows the everyday effects of a restrictive asylum policy on refugees in the EU. It tells four stories from the perspective of people who come to Europe and want to stay. Because they have no other choice.
Credits
Author & Director: Kerstin Nickig
Producers: Michael Truckenbrodt, Marcin Wierzchoslawski, Jacek Kucharski
DoP: Piotr Rosolowski, Jakub Bejnarowicz, André Frenzel
Editor: Karoline Schulz
Sound: Grzegorz Rózycki, Magnus Pflüger
Music: Zoë Keating, 33a, Amarbeck Dimaev, Sergey Davydov
Commissioning Editor: Barbara Paciorkowska (TVP S.A.), Udo Bremer (ZDF/3sat)
Production Companies: 3sat/ZDF, TVP2, TIME PRINTS, Metro Films.
Partners & Funding: Development funded by the European Union’s MEDIA program and the German-Polish Co-Development Fund, supported by the Medienboard Berlin-Brandenburg, the Central German Media Fund, and the Polish Film Institute. Production supported by the Medienboard Berlin-Brandenburg, the Polish Film Institute, and the Robert Bosch Stiftung Film Prize.
