5 Moroccan boys live in a cave at the lighthouse in Melilla and dream of Europe. Away from their mothers, longing for one ship that will transfer them illegally to a better life.
The Moroccan boys Imad (15), Nourdine (17), Walid (18), Hamza (17) and Aziz (20) live in a cave under the lighthouse in Melilla. Every night they break into the harbour trying to climb onto the ships leaving for the Spanish mainland. In the shadow of the rocks, they and a hundred other kids have created their own micro-society: “Lord of the Flies” in reality – with their own hierarchies, chants and rules. To pass the time, they phone their mothers on video or film themselves being chased by the police. The film follows the gang of boys for 5 years. From their life in the caves to their successful escape attempts to Spain. They call themselves: Harragas – those who burn the passports, the borders, their lives.
Lamine and his family recently moved to a farm in Senegal. There’s always a lot to do, but the afternoons are too hot. So it’s off to the beach with his new friend.
Lamine is seven years old and has just moved to Senegal with his family. His dad is half-Senegalese but was born and raised in Germany. The family of five has given up everything in Germany and is planning their future in West Africa. With their savings, they have bought a piece of land in the savannah where they want to build their own eco-farm. This has been their dream for years. The project is called “Gorgorlou” and means “life artist” in the local language Wolof. Their goal is to grow fruit and vegetables without soil in a sustainable and climate-friendly way and to keep animals in a species-appropriate way. Everything that forms nutrients is used. But there is still a lot to do before it all goes right: a huge greenhouse, a large chicken garden with space for 2,000 chickens, fish ponds and a small residential house, which they want to move into quickly because the farm has to be guarded day and night and because it is so nice to live in the middle of nature.
Lamine wants to learn everything from the beginning to become a real eco-farmer later on. He thinks it's great that he has so much freedom here. In the evening, he meets his new friend Samba on the beach for a mango picnic and finds out that mangoes are pretty much the best thing in Senegal!
In search of memories of her childhood, Asmae El Moudir recreates her Casablanca neighbourhood as an elaborate miniature and in the process comes across a trauma of Moroccan history.
Moroccan filmmaker Asmae El Moudir wants to know why she only has one photograph from her childhood, and why the girl in the picture isn't even her. When her family refuses to answer her questions about the past, she hits on another solution: on a handmade replica recreating the Casablanca neighbourhood where she grew up, El Moudir begins to interrogate the tales her mother, father and grandmother tell about their home and their country. Slowly, she starts to unravel the layers of deception and intentional forgetting that have shaped her life. The truth is hard to face, but in this sometimes surreal nonfiction film, El Moudir begins to draw what's real to the surface.
DOK Industry is realised with the support of Creative Europe MEDIA Programme of the European Union, the Mitteldeutsche Medienförderung (MDM) and the Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and the Media upon a Decision of the German Bundestag.