Formen der Fremdheit (Different Forms of Otherness)2005

The film shows daily-life situations on West African street, narrates experiences of immigrants coming from Western Europe, and cites newspaper articles – materials that were collected on journeys to Ghana, Benin and Senegal. One protagonist describes moments of closeness and foreignness during her years in Burkina Faso. The most trusted things sometimes appeared grotesque, sometimes poeticized in a foreign environment. The images and stories of the film reflect one possible basis of fascination and longing for the (here West African) Other. Its combination of footages creates a floating condition between imagination and the concreteness of the everyday.