Het leven is ergens anders

A portrait of the occupants of the Peperklip in Rotterdam, a huge apartment block that, seen from above, looks like a paperclip. Outside shots show a pattern of coloured square blocks. On the inside, long curved galleries run around a large inner court. The residents that Petterson films - sometimes outside, but mostly at home - are all waiting. The American painter Mark is waiting until he can return to Australia 'and forget this ever happened'. The young rapper Robel waits for his own house, also in the Peperklip, where he currently still lives with his mother - but first he needs an adequate income. Russian Viktor waits for his wife Svetlana's chronic headache to dissolve, so she can take care of the children and he can go and find a job. And the young father Ritus is waiting until he can see his son again. He used to have a house in the Peperklip, but was forced to return to his mother, who also lives here. In front of the window of his former, now empty apartment, he says: 'I was happy here. I had everything.'