“This impeccably photographed documentary chronicles a year in the lives of asylum seekers in Berlin’s historic Tempelhof, a former airport expanded by the Nazi government as a symbol of Hitler’s Germania. The irony of the situation is not lost on Aïnouz or his subjects. Ibrahim, an 18-year-old from Syria, is studying German and waiting for his status to change from the uncertain ‘protected’ category to the more secure ‘refugee.’ Qutaiba, a 35-year-old physiotherapist from Iraq who was forced to flee before completing medical school, is volunteering at the clinic as a translator. The airport has become a city within a city, with box homes, spaces for the provision of healthcare, a barbershop, table tennis, and even a modest Christmas market. The men and women who work in the shelter try to accord some dignity to the thousands of people in limbo there. Central Airport THF is a moving portrait of displaced people in transition, and its focus on the positive implies that Germany might be one of the few European countries generous enough to welcome them to a new home.” —Anthology Film Archives
Central Airport THF / ZENTRALFLUGHAFEN THF
A film by Karim Aïnouz
(Germany/France/Brazil, 2018, 100 min. In English, Arabic, German, Russian)
Streaming for free through Tuesday, March 2 as part of the German Documentary Showcase
Watch the trailer:
