Water Steps

The film tells the story of two people in love, trying to define their identity and asking questions about belonging. What does it mean to belong? Or even more what could fill the emptiness left in the absence of belonging? Growing up we develop the instinctive need of belonging to something or someone bigger than us, a family, a country, a culture for example. Soon the world we have known as children collapses before the eyes of the adult. So belongings shift and we understand that we can belong to smaller things like a moment, the beach, the morning sky, or a song.
Isn't it enough to just belong to ourselves and forget about the outside? Or is that another form of loneliness?
Do we need to belong to anything/ anyone at all? These questions have been chasing me all my life. I am a Syrian living in Berlin for 6 years. In Syria, in the city of Homes, I was the short guy from the minority in the south. In my city, I was the smart guy who went north to become an engineer. These personal experiences & thoughts inspired my characters on their journey of self-discovery in the city of Berlin. Sia is a strong young woman who moved from Cluj to Berlin where she is practicing her job as a hairdresser. She loves what she is doing and lives in Neukölln together with her partner, Moh. He is born in Germany with Lebanese roots and works as a waiter, but has ambitions to become a professional stand-up comedian. In the chaos of the city, they have found each other, but still, it feels like something is missing. This film is about what they call german Auf der Suche. But it is also about that moment when you stop your search and you calm down. You settle and you just live the day to its end. In Berlin, everybody is a stranger and that makes the grey city colorful. In Berlin many people are lonely. But maybe there are many outside just like Sia & Moh trying to find a root, a leaf, or an apple.

This film talks about belonging and identities in a very quotidian way. By following a 3 days journey in the life of two characters, the film wants to raise a discussion about what is worth being on screen. Do issues, situations, feelings need dramatic proportions to be worth mentioning in films? Or is everyday life in its little struggles, joys, and fears enough? Let's say this film shows the little everyday life invasions and this is maybe the main goal of this film: showing the reality just as it is. No dramatic fiction filter. So the film targets people that are searching for something in themselves but also in the outside world, people that are looking for answers to their identities on a banal level, if we may put it like this. More than anything it is for those who want to help us show the daily life stories about people with migration backgrounds, showing that they are "normal" people with hopes, goals, dreams, and fears unrelated to big dramas. We want to show another perspective on the migrant's lives in Berlin. We aim to break the social stereotypes, to present faces that do not yet have a place in the mainstream media.
This is a project that emerged out of personal stories and concerns, so it means a lot to us. With your support, we can make it happen!

We believe that people with a migration background are too often represented stereotypically. This is something we want to change in the way we can and we need your support to make it happen. We want to show people with different migration backgrounds just as they are, with their hopes and frustrations, preoccupations, and jobs.
Also, if you are a bit familiar with the film industry, you already know that many good projects would make an important cultural contribution to our society, but the whole plan remains on paper and never get on screen because it was not supported.

The money we raise from this crowdfunding will be used in the production of this film. This means we would use the money for the artists, locations, costumes, make-up and props, equipment, catering, and transportation for the team. It would be amazing if we would raise enough to cover also some post-production expenses like festival applications because we intend to put this film out in the world, so as many people can see it.
If the funding will be successful, with your support, we will be able to shoot this film (about 30´) in Berlin in July 2022.