It is the temporary climax of every flight story that is supposed to end with asylum in Germany: The hearing by the decision-maker at the Federal Office for Migration and Refugees (BAMF). Applicant and decision-maker sit face to face only once. Those who apply for asylum must credibly prove that they have been persecuted in their home country. The outcome determines the chance of a new life in Germany or a return to war, persecution or hopeless poverty. The staff of the BAMF have the law, their intellect and the leeway granted to them to make this decision.

In any case, there must be a selection of who actually “deserves” protection, finds Dan-Marvin Frosting, one of Germany’s youngest decision-makers. But not every persecution story fits into a black-and-white grid. His colleague at the Bingen branch of the BAMF, Michael Schwieger, says that we are sometimes “on thin ice”.

The Hamburg decision-maker Sybille Thomsen is an old hand. She has been following the increasingly complicated laws for over 20 years. Personal sympathies for the applicants play no role for the empathetic woman in her decision-making. Otherwise one would be dealing with arbitrariness. The viewer experiences the decision-making process from the hearing to the decision and in the process also gets to know the people whose lives are being changed. A film that breaks down big politics to the individual case. About constraints, thoughtfulness and morality and the impossible task of always doing the right thing.

Written + directed by Sandra Budesheim, Sabine Zimmer
Camera: Marcus Winterbauer
Editor: Julia Wiedwald
Music: Christoph Schauer
Production Manager: Brigit Mulders
Production: Andrea Ufer, Hanfgarn & Ufer
Editorial: Diana Kraus, ZDF – Das kleine Fernsehspiel; Kathrin Brinkmann, ZDF/ARTE Thema
Sponsored by: Nordmedia

– DOKfest München, 2017
– Filmkunstfest Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, 2017
– Nominated, PRIX EUROPA Kategorie IRIS, 2017