Papieren land

Shahib has been living in the Netherlands without a residence permit for twenty years, after he fled his motherland Somalia at the age of nine with his mother and brother. In this documentary, he takes stock in a flowing mix of word, music and performance. Director and close friend Marie van Vollenhoven situates his story in a white space that she continuously transforms and animates. By evoking Shahib’s lost years, the film raises the question what the extent of good intentions is, both with respect to friendship and bureaucracy.