Film Screening: WE ARE YOUNG. WE ARE STRONG.

About the Film

WE ARE YOUNG. WE ARE STRONG. recounts the incident of violent xenophobic riots in Rostock in 1992 from the perspectives of three very different characters.

LIEN is a Vietnamese woman who settled in Germany, but at the end of the day she will be fighting for her life wondering if the place she called home could ever be one for her. STEFAN and his friends are part of the night’s violent turmoil. Young and angry, bored during the daytime, they look forward to the nightly riots and clashes with the police and foreigners. Unable to cope with his grief at the loss of a friend, Stefan gets lost in a circle of violence. Stefan’s father MARTIN is an ambitious local politician, trapped in a dilemma: does he advance his career or stand up for his ideals and take responsibility, which includes that for his son?

About the Director

Burhan Qurbani’s family fled Afghanistan in 1979, seeking political asylum in Germany. After finishing school in Stuttgart, he worked in the theater as a dramatist‘s assistant and later as a director‘s assistant. In 2002, he enrolled at the Filmakademie Baden-Württemberg to study Directing.

His short films have been screened at festivals around the world and won numerous prizes including the German Camera Award and the German Film Critics‘ Award in 2008 for ILLUSION (2007). The same year he was honored with the Black Pearl for Best Newcomer of the Year from the Middle East International Film Festival. SHAHADA (2010), his graduation project and feature debut, premiered in the competition of the Berlinale (2010) and won, among other awards, the Golden Hugo in Chicago.

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Host or Publisher Goethe-Institut San Francisco