In interviews with an anthropologist, two young men who fled from Syria and Iraq and a coordinator of a refugee shelter in Brandenburg, this film raises questions about institutionalised and media reinforced mechanisms of discrimination.

“I am different, same as you are” is the message our participants from Poland, Ukraine and Germany want to send to not only all migrants and refugees in this world, but everyone.

This film was produced in Berlin, the last stop in our “refugees now and then project” and is a collage of different voices, counteracting a culture of fear and discrimination. It is an appeal to humanity and a reminder that we all need help sometimes.

Stretching over a period of six months, our project “Refugees – then and now”, offered 21 students from Germany, Poland and Ukraine the opportunity to meet in each of the three countries for a week-long film workshop.

In each country, the participants produced two documentaries. For the first, the group researched and explored the topic of escape and banishment during and after World War II. A second film illuminated the current refugee situation in the country. The work resulted in a collection of six deeply moving films, which we screened at Kino Central in Berlin as part of the project’s celebratory closing event.

The film collection is used as a teaching tool internationally

The project was financed by the German Foreign Ministry. It is a Glocal Films collaboration with the Goethe-Institut and the German Youth for Understanding Committee.