Locked In

The Cloud-Capped Star

April 1960 •Bengali

A selfless young woman, the daughter of a middle-class refugee family from East Pakistan, sacrifices her own happiness for her unappreciative family.

Skeet

September 2024 •English

After being released from prison, Billy Skinner returns to his low-income neighbourhood feeling like a fish out of water; the area has changed dramatically, and what was once a predominantly white neighbourhood is now mostly occupied by refugee families.

The House by the Sea

November 2017 •French

By a little bay near Marseille lies a picturesque villa owned by an old man. His three children have gathered by his side for his last days. It’s time for them to weigh up what they have inherited of their father’s ideals and the community spirit he created in this magical place. The arrival, at a nearby cove, of a group of boat people will throw these moments of reflection into turmoil.

Destruction of Silence

February 2014 •German

More

July 2017 •Turkish

Gaza is a 14-year-old boy who lives on the Aegean coast of Turkey. Together with his domineering father, he helps smuggle refugees from war-torn countries to Europe, giving them temporary lodgings and scant food until they attempt the crossing. Gaza dreams of escaping this life, but can't help being drawn into a dark world of immorality, exploitation and human suffering. Can you avoid becoming a monster when you've been raised by one? Onur Saylak's debut feature, adapted from the award-winning novel of the same title by Hakan Günday, one of the first novels to document the refugee crisis in Europe, "More" is the gripping story of a boy that gets to grow up in a world where there's no room for innocence.

Loving Glances

September 2003 •

Swan is a lonely Serbian refugee in Belgrade. He hopes for a visa to follow his long-lost fiancée to Chicago, but winds up at the Happy Millennium dating agency. A warm romantic comedy with a twist.

Sweetness in the Belly

September 2019 •English

Orphaned in Africa as a child, Lilly escapes to England as a refugee, fleeing civil war in Ethiopia. Lost in this cold new world, Lilly embraces the immigrant community in London, attempting to reunite people with their scattered families. But as her friend Amina discovers, Lilly's mission isn't purely selfless: a passionate lost love affair is revealed.

Unwanted

September 2017 •Albanian

A lonely boy, who lives in Amsterdam with his refugee mother from Kosovo, keeps getting into trouble while yearning for her acceptance. But the traumas caused by the war, which his mother hides away from him, turn his world upside down.

For a Moment, Freedom

August 2008 •German

Centers on a group of weary Middle Eastern refugees who have made their way to Turkey to apply for European visas.

The Story of Good People

April 1975 •Slovenian

The return of a refugee from the police to his grandparents' village disrupts the life of the villagers.

Open Cage

June 2015 •Serbian

Anna, a young photojournalist from Berlin, travels to Serbia to make a photo documentary about refugees. Upon her arrival to Belgrade, Serbia's capital, Anna finds out that she can't go about her task the way she had planned. Through the cabdriver Dzeki, she meets the distrustful but interesting young refugee Maja who works at a nearby fast food restaurant. Miserable with her life in Serbia, Maja dreams of a new beginning somewhere abroad. In an attempt to successfully finish her project, Anna starts photographing Maja, secretly making a documentary about her. Blinded by the wish to change her life, Maja doesn't realize Anna's true intentions.

The Woman with a Broken Nose

September 2010 •Serbian

The act of a woman with a broken nose, who suddenly jumps out of a taxi and throws herself off the bridge in Belgrade, connects the lives of three witnesses.

Leaps and Bounds

February 2007 •Swedish

Azad comes to Sweden by mistake. In order to blend in with the family that hides him, he must pretend that he is nine years old. Suddenly he's quite alone in a new country and doesn't understand the language. But with the help of a spaced-out hot-dog vendor, the coolest guy in school, and world champion Kajsa Bergqvist, maybe he can find his real family again.

The Swimmers

November 2022 •English

From war-torn Syria to the 2016 Rio Olympics, two young sisters embark on a risky voyage, putting their hearts and their swimming skills to heroic use.

Hidden Children

January 2004 •Italian

This is a true story about forty Jewish children on their way to Palestine, who were blocked by the German and Italian occupation of Yugoslavia in 1941. Before finding a haven at Villa Emma in Nonantola in northern Italy, where they arrived on June 17, 1942, the children spent several adventurous months in Slovenia, caught up in the ongoing fight between the partisans and the Italian army. In April 1943, another 33 children, some from the Balkans, others from France, joined the original group. All were orphans who had lost their parents in concentration camps and had subsequently been smuggled out of Germany by Recha Freier, a well-known Zionist. The group ranged in age from six to twenty one and settled in at Villa Emma with their chaperones and teachers, Josef Indig, Marco Schoky and the pianist Boris Jochverdson.

Zawal

April 2021 •

Eight year-old Adam confronts a mutated world, when he breaks out of the designated quarantine area for refugees.

The Swimming Lesson

Invalid date •English

Based on a true story, teenage, Muslim refugee girls in burkinis take a fantastical swimming lesson in Idaho. The initiative for swimming lessons began after a newly arrived refugee, a Congolese boy, drowned in the summer of 2017. ​​

My Name Is Loh Kiwan

February 2024 •Korean

After defecting from North Korea, Loh Kiwan struggles to obtain refugee status in Belgium, where he encounters a dejected woman who has lost all hope.

Porcelain

September 2023 •English

Adapting to her new home in Melbourne, Vietnam War immigrant Hanh (9 years old) mistakes the cunningness of her new “friends” as an act of kindness, forcing her to come to terms with the reality of human betrayal through the loving and tender guide of her family - especially her father, Quan.

Curveball

April 2021 •German

Although he already has searched Iraq unsuccessfully for weapons of mass destruction as a member of a UN mission, German bio-weapons expert Arndt Wolf is still obsessed with the idea that Saddam Hussein is hiding something. Nobody around him is interested in this topic any more. This changes abruptly when an Iraqi asylum seeker claims to have been involved in the manufacture of chemical weapons. The German Federal Intelligence Service summons Dr. Wolf to ascertain the legitimacy of the claims made by the informant, who has been given the code name “Curveball”.