Mahdi Fleifel: Xenos

”A World not Ours” was in Belgrade for the Magnificent7 festival – and was met with enthusiasm. The director told us that a follow-up short film had been selected for the Berlinale short film competition. The first public screening takes place today in Berlin, I got a dvd to watch here in Copenhagen. For those of you who are in Berlin, go and watch the film, there are still screenings scheduled. You will discover a harsh cinematic interpretation of what it means to be a refugee in today’s Europe.

The main character of ”A World not Ours”, the charismatic Abu Eyad, fled his Palestinian refugee camp in Lebanon to end up in the streets of Athens, where drug addicts lie on the pavements and where he sleeps in a cellar room together with other refugees. To say the least, they hate to be in Athens, they take drugs to survive depression, and Abu Eyad earns money through sex with men and ”grannies” as he calls them.

The film is based on rough material from the streets and the cellar, including photos, with the sound of a phone conversation between the director and his pal Abu Eyad. It works perfect.

There is no smile on your face having watched this short documentary from… yes from Hell.

Xenos means “stranger”, “enemy”, “alien”.

13 mins., 2014, United Kingdom, Denmark

Link: berlinale.de/en/programm

Tue Steen Müller

Müller, Tue Steen
Documentary Consultant and Critic, DENMARK

Worked with documentary films for more than 20 years at the Danish Film Board, as press officer, festival representative and film consultant/commissioner. Co-founder of Balticum Film and TV Festival, Filmkontakt Nord, Documentary of the EU and EDN (European Documentary Network).
Awards: 2004 the Danish Roos Prize for his contribution to the Danish and European documentary culture. 2006 an award for promoting Portuguese documentaries. 2014 he received the EDN Award “for an outstanding contribution to the development of the European documentary culture”. 2016 The Cross of the Knight of the Order for Merits to Lithuania. 2019 a Big Stamp at the 15th edition of ZagrebDox. 2021 receipt of the highest state decoration, Order of the Three Stars, Fourth Class, for the significant contribution to the development and promotion of Latvian documentary cinema outside Latvia. In 2022 he received an honorary award at DocsBarcelona’s 25th edition having served as organizer and programmer since the start of the festival.
From 1996 until 2005 he was the first director of EDN (European Documentary Network). From 2006 a freelance consultant and teacher in workshops like Ex Oriente, DocsBarcelona, Archidoc, Documentary Campus, Storydoc, Baltic Sea Forum, Black Sea DocStories, Caucadoc, CinéDOC Tbilisi, Docudays Kiev, Dealing With the Past Sarajevo FF as well as programme consultant for the festivals Magnificent7 in Belgrade, DOCSBarcelona, Verzio Budapest, Message2Man in St. Petersburg and DOKLeipzig. Teaches at the Zelig Documentary School in Bolzano Italy.

Articles: 3927