Search Film, Company, People...

ALL ROADS LEAD TO NO HOME

By Afraa BATOUS

Female director - Post-Production 2021

To cope with the daily trauma of a lost home, Syrian filmmaker Afraa Batous is filming her friends as they plan to embark on their first road trip ever.

- Year of production
- 2021
- Genres
- Female director, Road movie, Documentary
- Countries
- GERMANY
- Languages
- ARABIC
- Duration
- 90 mn
- Director(s)
- Afraa BATOUS
- Producer(s)
- Ira TONDOWSKI (Tondowski Films GbR), Alex TONDOWSKI (Tondowski Films GbR)
- Synopsis
- Rahaf, Sara, Rawa and Afraa know the overwhelming feeling of losing the ground underneath one's feet very well. It’s been eight
  years since their homes in Syria have been blown into pieces, but for some reason the world hasn’t stopped to fall apart since then. Every step ahead seems to be followed by defeat. To fight back against how life has unfolded for them, filmmaker Afraa decides to make a film, one about her friends being happy, about their dreams and fears.
  She invites her friends to join her attempt to do a trip through Europe, determined to document their experiences. In Berlin,where the women live, the preparations for the journey begin, but soon it becomes clear, that the women follow different priorities.
  
  SARAH (33), a proud single mother who lives with her 3-year-old daughter Shams isolated in a small apartment outside of town,hopes to simply reconnect with other people and imagines how she and her daughter will watch Afraas recordings in a few years,remembering how much joy they had together.
  
  RAHAF (32), Afraas closest friend, former enemy and fierce Syrian rights activist, refuses the idea of fun and wants to use the movie to reach out to other women, be a positive inspiration for them and to set her agenda for becoming president of Syria one day.
  
  Meanwhile, RAWA (47) is busy preparing a “circle of peace” workshop for trauma support counselling. The moment Afraa mentioned a group of women traveling together she decided to join because the 20-year-old girl inside of her awoke after long years of sleep, family responsibilities and social restrictions.
  
  AFRAA (34), a director struggling with the heaviness that has taken over her live eight years ago, is working on getting the project to happen. In her apartment in Berlin, she organizes a movie night: They prepare popcorn and drinks, discuss the latest developments in their lives and watch a German roadmovie to get inspired. As the women watch, they sarcastically compare the problems the people in the film are experiencing with their own experiences on the borders of Europe. This evening, they decide to rent a car. Despite all struggles with papers, missing driving licences and barely any free time, they are determined to do a roadtrip - a way of traveling that European friends often mentioned, and a way of traveling that was unimaginable to them- until now. With their “refugee passports” and a narrow one month time window they decide to travel to the first European cities they
  arrived on their asylum trip: Zurich - Rome - Athens. Away from everything, surrounded by nature the protagonists past and present starts to unfold.
  Afraa observes their everyday life under the shadow of the past and present and uncovers a generation of Syrian women's collective response: a testament of resilience.