Casts & Crew
Hadi Khanjanpour
Kristin Suckow
Aziz Çapkurt
Jacob Matschenz
Zübeyde Bulut
Jeanette Hain
Vedat Erincin
Sesede Terziyan
Barbara Philipp
Konrad Singer
Also Directed by Florian Hoffmann
A woman fights against right-wing politics.
A pain management specialist in a Berlin hospital laments how difficult it is to see if black skin has turned blue. The patient, 15year old Arlette, doesn’t understand German. Her knee was injured in the war, and unknown wealthy Germans have helped pay for her trip to have surgery in Europe. The camera follows Arlette on her journey, from her worried family in Central African Republic to the desolate rooms of the hospital and the rehabilitation centre. The girl’s gaze is captivating but impenetrable, and the easily bored teenager surrounded by adult strangers is only cheered up by an interpreter who knows her mother tongue. The story takes a gloomier turn when it transpires that rebel forces have taken up arms in Arlette’s home country.
It’s known as the hotel with 500 rooms—a luxury resort in the Central African Republic owned by Gaddafi. But after the Libyan dictator’s death, the never-used hotel is left in limbo. The gardener still mows the lawn, the guards still patrol and the manager tends to the ghost hotel that may never welcome its first guest.