CARAVAN
Lucy Ashton | Austria 2024 | 94 min. | Pashto, English, German, French with English subtitles
SUNDAY, 19.05. | 5 pm
Votiv Kino, Gr. Saal | TICKETS
In presence of Lucy Ashton
Samim, Fawad, Marwand and Najib have fled from Afghanistan to Austria, where they hope to build a new life in Vienna. But the seemingly endless wait for a positive asylum decision seems to make this impossible. An existence begins between visits to the authorities, changing mini-jobs and accommodation and the fear of deportation also leads them to try their luck in other European cities. Only their friendship gives them stability in these uncertain times.
Lucy Ashton encourages the four men to record their lives with their cell phones. Through this video diary, created over three years, CARAVAN offers an insight into the difficulties of migrants face in building an existence in Europe and what it means to arrive but not be accepted.
Director: Lucy Ashton (she/her)
Cinematography: Fawad Akbari (he/him), Marwand Mohamadi (he/him), Najib Mohamadi (he/him), Samim
Mohmand (he/him)
Editing: Samira Ghahremani (she/her)
Sound: Andreas Hamza (he/him)
Production: Lucy Ashton, Rasselas Productions
SCREENINGS AND AWARDS
Diagonale 2024, Graz
BIOGRAPHY
Lucy Ashton has worked as a journalist for more than eighteen years. She was one of a small team who set up Al Jazeera English and has worked for BBC, Channel 4, Al Arabiya, the UN and NGOs both internationally and in the UK. She has lived and worked in Egypt, Georgia, Qatar and Malawi and has considerable field experience researching, directing and producing complex filming projects around the world. She now lives in Austria with her partner and twin boys and chooses to work on challenging projects which are unusual, somehow, beautiful and might change the world – just a little. Caravan is her directing debut.
