Beyond Borders - Stories of freedom and friendship

What can films do for children in flight and crisis situations? Can film work alleviate suffering or even give hope? And what can the film grenzenlos - Geschichten von Freiheit & Freundschaft (Borderless - Stories of Freedom & Friendship) give the children beyond the mere screening of ideas for their future, hope and energy? Two years ago, the Goethe-Institut launched the project under the title Missing Movies. The idea was to make a series of non-verbal short films that could be used in refugee camps. After an international call for proposals, young filmmakers from Syria, Germany, Colombia and Iran were selected in close cooperation with Bildersturm Filmproduktion to address these questions. Some of them have already had experience of flight and displacement themselves or have already worked concretely with children in emergency situations and have developed a precise sense of where to start with their films. Each of the seven films dramaturgically accompanied by Bildersturm captures the needs of refugee children in its own unique way - as a feature film, documentary and animated film. Each of these films tackles a different facet of existence without a home or without a family, without friends or without their own toys - and supposedly without a future. And each of these short films offers a small perspective on life for the duration of 8-12 minutes.