Emerson Culurgioni & Jonas Matauschek
Deutschland | 2017 | 79 min
Weltpremiere
Sprachen : german, english, arabic, Kurdisch
Untertiteln : english, french

On the shores of the largest artificial lake in Germany, areas of transit or those still under construction play host to very different lives: that of a former miner, an ornithologist, a Nigerian asylum seeker and an exiled Syrian poet. And a migrating bird, that is coming back from wintering in Africa and whose colours overcome the gloom of the landscape...
In four episodes the film HABITAT explores different lifeworlds along the largest artificial lake in Germany. What once was an opencast pit is now flooded and transformed into a local recreation area.
Reinhard Hirsch is a former miner who was involved in the renaturation of the landscape. His native village once had to give way to the coal mining. From his garden plot, he can look at the exact spot on the lake where once his grandparents house stood.
The bee-eater is a colourful migrant bird with a particular call which nests in the remaining stockpiles from the coal mine. The ornithologist Christine Lattke is waiting with her camera amongst industrial ruins for the bird's return from Africa.
In a mass refugee camp near the lake, Ganiyu Idris from Niger is waiting for the outcome of his application for asylum.
The Kurdish poet, Farhan Kalasch is living in a former miners' settlement. Since being granted asylum he is trying to reunite his family in Germany.
Emerson Culurgioni & Jonas Matauschek
2017 Habitat
2014 Leuna (sf)

Trailer