Dino Weisz is a German film director and screenwriter. After his film studies in France (Université Paris 8), Weisz completed his diploma at the HfbK Hamburg with Wim Wenders and Gerd Roscher. His thesis film is an experimental road movie through the East German provinces. His current film “Farasha” also takes place in a small East German town and shows the strong division in the German society on the subject of migration.
Since I shot my diploma film a few years ago in small East German towns, the East of Germany has changed a lot. Fear, insecurity and xenophobia have increased. I am shocked by the resurgence of the right wing in the region. With Farasha I want to show the absurdity of a situation that calls for change. Local people who are afraid of social change meet people who have been deprived of everything, refugees who have to start all over again. And in between, there are people who have been living for years in one of Germany’s big cities, in a country of immigration that offers a home to people with a different cultural mind set.
Karim, as a “warrior between worlds,“ bears the burden of this division on his shoulders. As a German with Turkish roots he fights for a Germany of open-mindedness. He is a strong hero who is shaken by the situation in that small town called „Eisental“ („Iron Valley“).
I see the film as a critical description of the current state of affairs. I hope analysis of this situation will provoke a necessary discussion about this topic.