Taste of Salt

synopsis

Ammar and Bilal both have experience as refugees living in present-day Germany. They meet thanks to an interview conducted by an actress and actor, who are using it as inspiration for a play they are preparing. However, the documentary film Taste of Salt follows their conversations, their everyday lives, and ultimately the theatrical performance that emerges from these conversations. The film thus recounts the experience of exile through three different means. Ammar and Bilal talk about their difficult experiences with migration and with their lives in their new home. At the same time, the camera follows them in distanced shots that emphasize their uprootedness in the German urban environment and, ultimately, in the artistic theatrical performance. Thanks to this, the film can be viewed as a testimony to the current waves of migration, a record of their everyday existence, and an empathetic portrayal of their feelings about life.

“We had two different feelings. First of all we were happy that we had left that bad place and the pain we faced there. And secondly, a fear of what we are going to face. For me it was the first time I had seen the sea.”

biography

Raaed Al Kour is a German director of Syrian origin. He is the author of the multimedia project What They Want to Hear (2018), in which he draws on his own experience as a refugee negotiating with the German authorities. Since 2019, he has been studying documentary film at the The University of Television and Film Munich.

film details

director:	Raaed Al Kour
producer:	Viktor Schimpf, Kolja Volkmar
script:	Raaed Al Kour
photography:	Jacob Kohl
editing:	Jonas Riedinger
music:	Arezou Rezaei
sound design:	Philip Hutter