Ankommen / Arrival

Ten years ago, young Syrian Alayham fled civil war, and the threat of being drafted, for Germany. There, he became one of the first refugees in Eckernförde – there were six of them at the time, he later remembers. Quickly learning German, he got politically involved in refugee projects, and spoke publicly about his experiences. A move to Jena for university followed: a new everyday life with exam stress, living in a shared flat, a relationship. It was during his studies that he finally felt that he was no longer being reduced to his experience as a refugee: he belonged. Alayham found his feet, as much as possible in a foreign country. But when is “arriving” truly over? Over a period of ten years, documentary filmmaker Fredo Wulf accompanied Alayham on his journey from Schleswig-Holstein via Jena to Heidelberg, where he has lived since getting his medical license. The documentary tells not just of a migrant arriving in Germany, it is also the portrait of a young person who arrives in life.