On the Border – Europas Grenzen in der Sahara | mit Seebrücke Heidelberg

In the organizer's words:

ON THE BORDER - Europe's borders in the Sahara

Special screening on Wednesday, 13.05., 20:15, Kamera in cooperation with Seebrücke Heidelberg

Film discussion with director Igor Hauzenberger (digitally connected) and Sigrid Zweygart-Pérez (Commissioner for Flight, Migration and Integration of the Protestant Church in Baden | pastor at the arrival center in Heidelberg)

D/A/CH 2024 | Director: Igor Gerald Hauzenberger, Gabriela Schild | 103 min. | FSK 12 | Documentary film

The historic city center of Agadez glows a deep red at sunset. Its mud architecture has survived for centuries in the middle of a geopolitical hotspot that is not allowed to rest despite the presence of well-financed non-African institutions. Not only the
Nigerians are not the only ones asking themselves: what are America and Europe actually doing here? Since the EU focused its migration prevention efforts on the so-called "gateway to the desert", a virtual border has been running through northern Niger. With it, the main source of income for the local Tuareg, the transportation of goods and people across the Sahara, has dried up. Instead, unemployment and a lack of prospects became rampant - fertile ground for radicalization and crime.

Gerald Igor Hauzenberger and Gabriela Schild trace the complex history and present of Agadez in a balanced montage of private conversations, personal details and a broader perspective on regional and global political contexts. Over the course of several years, they have listened, asked questions and worked to build trust and relationships on the ground. In this way, proximity, amazement and overview enter into a nuanced cinematic dialog. Along the breaking points of a perhaps historic West African paradigm shift. Along a border that is not a border.