Film Screening: Exile

Film Synopsis

Xhafer, a 45 year old, Kosovo-born pharmaceutical engineer living in Germany suddenly feels discriminated against and bullied at work because of his ethnic background.

When Xhafer finds a dead rat hanging from the gate in front of his home, it is immediately clear to him that his racist colleagues could be behind it. Every occurrence, every word, every gesture is taken as evidence. Xhafer’s uneasiness grows every day. His German wife Nora is tired of him playing the race card all the time. Do his colleagues simply dislike him? Or is there more to their hostility? Is this all in his mind or is it the actual reality?

EXILE chronicles a steadily growing, though possibly imagined, threat. As Xhafer loses his job, wife, and his family, he walks a delicate tightrope between his life as an integrated, middle-class family man, and foreigner in his adopted country. A thriller about paranoia and identity that’s simultaneously dark and surreal, with echoes of genre cinema and an unconventional sense of humor.

About the Director

Visar Morina was born in Kosovo and studied at the Cologne Academy of Media Arts. His much-acclaimed debut Babai received multiple awards such as Best Director and European Cinema Label in Karlovy Vary and Best Script at Filmfest München. EXIL is his second feature. The script was honored with the German Federal Award Lola in Gold for an unfilmed screenplay.

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Host or Publisher Goethe-Institut San Francisco