The Story of Hussain Hussaini – One Who Survived
A Film by Jakob Gatzka
2021
“MY WAY” is a film about the devastating situation in Afghanistan, about flight and successful integration. Starting with the arrival at Munich’s main train station in the summer of 2015, the film tells of the suffering of refugees, but at the same time sends an optimistic signal that fleeing can end well, a new home can be found and integration can succeed, even if wounds remain. “MY WAY” is about xenophobia and the culture of welcome, about a society torn apart and about great voluntary commitment. Last but not least, on the occasion of the 70th anniversary of the Geneva Refugee Convention, “MY WAY” gives an idea of how questions of migration could be addressed and answered in the future in view of more than 80 million refugees worldwide.
How it began
Jakob Gatzka met Hussain in autumn 2012 when his family took him and five other boys from Afghanistan with them. “It was immediately clear to me that the escape issue would continue to engage me for some time. I wanted to find out everything that had led to the escape and what had happened. For some years I gave Hussain lessons in German and confidence developed. So far that he took me to Iran in 2015 and introduced me to his mother who lived there. At the time, I had already begun to translate his story into a film that will also be released as a book.”
Learn more about the film
Hussain Hussaini is a member of the Hazara ethnic group. As a child he had to flee Afghanistan and came to Iran. As a teenager he had to leave Iran and came to Germany.
With Hussain and his camera the author and film director Jakob Gatzka travelled to Iran and got to know the stations of his former life and his dramatic escape: through Iran and Turkey across the sea to Greece and to the capital Athens, finally across the Balkans, until Hussain was picked up in the train near Traunstein…
On the way, the two spoke with companions and smugglers. And they observed how Hussain integrated himself into Germany and found a second home. One fear, however, remains: Will Hussain also lose this, his third “home”?
The film was made between 2015 and 2018. Today, Hussain lives near Dachau and, after successfully completing his “Quali”, is training as a nursing assistant. He has a German residence permit and an Afghan passport. In two years, after successfully completing his integration course, he will receive a German passport.
Most of the film was made privately, with financial contributions from individuals and with the support of the non-profit BUXUS STIFTUNG GmbH. The video equipment rental Nürnberg (Karl Wittmann) helped with the creation.
Jakob Gatzka
Jakob Gatzka studied German language and philosophy, he was a guest student at the Hochschule für Fernsehen und Film in Munich, worked for director Dominik Graf and an agency, and he was a television author (SOKO Wismar, ZDF).
Donations
If you value and support independent research, please donate with the keyword “MY WAY” to the account of BUXUS STIFTUNG gGmbH:
Sparkasse Oberland, IBAN: DE16 7035 1030 0032 2488 66
The donations can be claimed for tax purposes.
URL: https://www.fritz-bauer-forum.de/en/my-way-2/