The thin red line between fiction and truth, reality and dream, east and west

The protagonists of Dream Away, who work in the tourist industry of Sharm El Sheikh, are faced with an existential dilemma. In the shadows of the gaudy hotel facades they are forced to live in the no man's land between two worlds. For some of them, western values symbolize the independence they dreamt of since the revolution. For others, the sun-soaked coastal strip that is surrounded by nothing but sand and sea water is nothing but a purgatory full of sinners. Yet for all of them, life in Sharm El Sheikh represents a crawl on the thin line between the deeply rooted traditions of their ancestors and the possibilities of the western lifestyle with its promises of consumption, sex and self-determination.

Walking the streets of Sharm El Sheik is like getting lost inside a theatre play where the stage designer went mad: polished fictitious motto facades side by side with dinosaur dummies and larger-than-life statues of comic characters - it seems that reality itself is only fractured memory. The experimental documentary works like a broken mirror: it reflects the narrative identities of the protagonists, who play their own perceived presents and imagined futures in reenactments right in the middle of the surrealistic tourist stronghold Sharm El Sheikh.

Dream Away is a co-production of Monokel and Fig Leaf with WDR. The film received funding from the Film- und Medienstiftung NRW, Catapult Film Fund (USA), the Arab Fund for Arts and Culture, the Doha Film Institute, the Hot Docs Blue Ice Group Documentary Fund as well as the Berlinale Talents Doc Station Development Grant.

Documentary / Germany, Egypt / 85min. / HD CAM / Colour

Credits
Languages: Arabic, Russian, German, French, English
Directors: Marouan Omara, Johanna Domke
Producer: Roman Roitman, Mark Lotfy
Co-Producer: Arne Birkenstock
DOP: Jakob Beurle
A dark comedy about origin, identity and social adaptability

Shortly after the declaration of the State of Israel in 1948, a Mizrahi Jewish family emigrates from Morocco. Mousa, the insecure head of the family, his wife Rachel and their seven years old daughter Golda try to settle into life in Haifa.


Recipient the Film Prize of the Robert Bosch Stiftung 2015

Short fiction/ Jordan / 18min. / HD CAM / Colour

Credits
Languages: Arabic, Hebrew, Yiddish
Directors: Darin Sallam & Amjad Al Rasheed
Producer: Roman Roitman, Deema Azar
Screnplay: Amjad Al Rasheed, Darin Sallam & Rifqi Assaf
Cast: Hend Sabry
Ashram Barhoum
Yasmine Ben Amara
The odyssey of a young woman searching for a buried part of her own story

Nadja Bobyleva doesn't know who her father is. She was never allowed to meet him. Over the years, she developed a permanent feeling of being a stranger, which became a strong part of her identity.

After decades of doubts and reservations, Nadja decided to leave her shell and get to know the familiar stranger from her dreams. She's excited - and scared. Will she find him? What if he doesn't want to meet her or if he doesn't accept her as his daughter? Is he even alive? With a troubled mind but an open heart Nadja embarks on a long journey, travelling from Cologne via St. Petersburg, Moscow and Rostow to Charkow in the Ukraine. Her only companion is a video camera to document her journey into the unknown.

Vater. Mutter. Ich. received post-production grant from the Film- und Medienstiftung NRW.