Refugee filmmakers and creatives who have ended up in the Netherlands - how do you make sure they find their place here, that they are offered a creative outlet here? Buddy Film Foundation offers a platform and a network to help them do just that.
At this Buddy Film Night in Rialto, everyone is welcome to connect with each other, get to know Buddy Film Foundation better and see a great film. This time the programme includes Nafiss Nia's Die middag, a film by and about an Iranian refugee. After the film, Nia will answer questions from the audience.
Die middag
Some 20 years ago, translator/poet/filmmaker Nafiss Nia fled from Iran to the Netherlands, an experience she has shaped in many different ways. The experience of fleeing is also at the heart of Die middag, her feature debut. It is, in her own words, a film "about everyone who has been close to despair at one point in their lives, about the power of togetherness, and that we cannot manage without each other."
Iranian refugee Roya has exhausted all legal remedies and to avoid deportation, she is fleeing the asylum seekers' centre. She hopes to go to Nassim, a woman who takes care of rejected refugees. But only Nassim's brother is at home and he cannot and will not let her in. Roya decides to wait for Nassim in the hallway. Soon she gets into a conversation with the brother and even though they are fellow sufferers, the way they view life differs like night and day.