In a year that saw over one million refugees arrive in Germany, filmmaker Pia Lenz follows the families of Djaner, a 7-year-old Roma boy, and Ghofran, an 11-year-old girl from Syria, as they settle in their adoptive home of Hamburg. But settled their lives are not, as revealed in this longitudinal portrait of coming of age while one’s homeland is coming apart. Djaner holds the screen like a modern-day Antoine Doinel, his 400 blows taking the form of schoolyard culture clashes and a household under threat of estrangement and expulsion. As Djaner enduringly looks ahead, Ghofran struggles with looking back, longing for the life she knew in Syria, and a reunited family. Conflicts writ large and small, tender and tragic, mount over the course of a year, while the brave young protagonists gamely search for themselves in their new world, brought about by dissolution and disillusion.  TM

Filmmaker Q&A following screening