The Brandenburg village of Golzow was made famous by The Children of Golzow, one of the most ambitious long-term documentary projects in film history. In 1961, Winfried Junge made a film about village children in their first year at school; he continued to film them at regular intervals for another 46 years. Another decade later, the village like the region as a whole, is characterised by an ageing population and rural exodus; the village school faces closure, the end seems imminent. But Mayor Frank Schütz finds an unconventional solution to the village’s problems: The New Children of Golzow, the urgently-needed younger generation of football players, dance club members and voluntary fire fighters, will be children from Syrian refugee families. Even if long-time residents are initially sceptical about his visionary project.
Simone Catharina Gaul’s film team accompanies one of two families that try to start a new life in the dwindling East German village. Although the contrast to their once vibrant home town of Latakia could hardly be starker, Halima, Fadi and their three children do their best to adjust to village life and a completely different culture. In an unspectacular manner, the film documents the family’s everyday lives, between school playground and allotment, with all the hurdles and triumphs it entails.