A 12-year-old Yemeni refugee and an 85-year-old German man, once a refugee himself, meet in Germany. The old widower, Konrad (Jürgen Prochnow – “Das Boot”), and the 12-year old fugitive, Thurba (Milena Pribak), are adversaries at first, but their separate battles coincide.
On the surface the story is certainly gripping enough. Thurba breaks into Konrad’s basement for shelter. He thinks a low-down gypsy is there and aims his nail gun to shoot the invader. However, it is only little Thurba. She is there because she does not want her family placed in Bulgaria.
Gratefully, the director, Jakob Zapf, has answered all my questions. “A Handful of Water” has won 11 awards and nine nominations throughout the world. Zapf’s explanations helped me understand what’s different about EU immigration policy as well as what’s transcendent about his movie.
Having made it out of Yemen, Thurba’s brave mother and three children end up in temporary housing in Germany while awaiting a permanent placement. It’s a nice apartment, a humane temporary placement for the chronic stream of refugees.
But one night, when Thurba’s Yemeni family is together, the officials come to transport them to their permanent final destination: Bulgaria. They are horrified.
“What’s wrong with Bulgaria?” I ask Jakob Zapf. Surely, they should be grateful they are not returned to war-torn, starving Yemen.
Zapf explains: “I understand this can evoke questions for viewers outside Europe. Within the EU Bulgaria has gained quite a reputation over the years for an especially brutal police and very unkind treatment to refugees. When we made the movie, Bulgaria was the worst on this list.”
When the immigration authorities came to take Thurba’s family to Bulgaria, Thurba jumped off the low-level balcony and started running. This seems to be a risky thing to do. Wouldn’t she then be separated from her family forever?
Zapf responds: “Germany only transfers whole families because if they were to transfer parts, leaving children behind, that would mean the children have a right to stay until their 18th birthday (at least, but probably forever) and even have the right to try and make their family members come back to Germany to join them. Because the rights of minors are so protected, this leads to the family always being deported as a whole. Thurba understands this. It’s what she and her mother decided before the film starts. Thurba doesn’t really want to comply, but her mother is sending her.”
After Thurba is shot, Konrad finds out a little about her. He learns that her father was killed and that they were hoping to make it to Britain to live with his brother. Doesn’t the EU refugee policy try to reunite families in their placement policy?
Zapf: “True, they do. The family wanted to go to the uncle in London, but the UK, which is no longer in the EU, won’t allow people in without a visa. Traveling illegally as a small family with three children, two of them very small, wouldn’t make for a high probability in reaching the goal. So, they didn’t try together.”
Konrad is mourning the death of his wife. He has a separate room dedicated to her. Thurba sneaks in when he is gone and steals a necklace. Looking at herself in the mirror, she seems to think life would be easier if she was a male. So, she cuts off her hair. At the same time, Konrad’s daughter, who has married a woman and adopted children, accuses him of being distant because of her life choices. What is being said here about gender issues?
Zapf: “What is mostly in the center is the situation of disadvantage for people who live in the wrong-sexed body (trans). Please excuse my English if I’m using words in a bad or offending way. What we wanted to show in this movie is rather the situation where a person lives in the wrong society than in the wrong body. Gender is a very societal thing – and with it comes responsibilities and duties, but also freedoms and certain credibility. So Thurba, as a girl, is seen as no real help to the mother (even if she is), but as a boy she would be highly appreciated – every move worshipped. Girls tend to be victims more likely, tend to be overseen more likely, tend to be targets of violence and sexual abuse more likely, but don’t have the same freedoms as boys – more so in a Muslim background than in a Western.”
I know immigration policies in America are in chaos. There are years of wait time for applications, even in straightforward cases where an American gets married overseas and tries to bring the spouse to the US. Unfortunate people who have left their homes and sacrificed everything for a safe life with opportunity in the US end up squatting on the Mexican border without sanitation, shelter or food. Trucks promising passage get stranded and people die in them. What is “A Handful of Water” telling us about EU immigration policies?
Zapf: “They are bad. We have been talking in the EU for years and years but have not been able to produce a real law that works. Also in Germany, the second biggest immigration country in the world, there’s no immigration law yet. Asylum cases take forever, and while people are waiting they are not allowed to work. This leads to failing integration in a lot of cases, and to rising frustration. Also, there are not enough German language courses, in certain times also not enough housing, and not enough help in general. On the other hand, there’s no clear rules that are followed so that even after crimes, people are still not deported which makes for a very tense discussion in the rest of the population. Germany is also very different from the US in how the German identity is projected: There is mostly a tribal understanding of this and people who migrated into this country are never (not even in the third generation) seen as natural Germans. They are always foremost Turks, Kurds, Italians or wherever their roots once were. In the US it seems people can become an American and still be proud of their Italian, Irish, or Nigerian roots. In Germany, whenever you’re proud of your roots outside of Germany that means people doubt your ‘Germanness’ immediately.”
“A Handful of Water” is a microcosm of life. We all have battles to fight. Konrad is so wracked with grief over his wife’s death he can’t function well. Thurba is also struggling. As their existential battles coincide, there comes an empathy, healing and resolution that calls upon them both to be brave.
What compelled you to make this beautiful film?
Zapf: “There’s a lot of frustration about change in our society. I wanted to show that the newly arriving people are just people. They are not some monsters or some aliens, but rather like you and me. If you’re true to yourself, there’s even shared experiences such as war, seeking refuge, trauma, unacceptance, trust, and friendship. These experiences can transcend age borders easily, even if they seem at first insurmountable. We should focus more on that – the possibility of human understanding – and be clear about our own limitations so we can work around them. Shared trauma is less heavy, shared time is weighing more.”
There are multiple levels of understanding in “A Handful of Water”: our drive for purpose, our craving for freedom, safety and self-determination, our desire for just laws, and our need for love. Zapf shows us that when we work together we can start in a positive direction.
RATING: 10/10
Credits
Director: Jakob Zapf
Writers: Ashu B.A., Marcus Seibert and Jakob Zapf
Stars: Jürgen Prochnow, Milena Pribak, Anja Schiffel, Pegah Ferydoni, Regine Vergeen, Rainer Ewerrien, and Anke Sevenich
Producers: Tonio Kellner, Andrea Simmi, and Jakob Zapf
Co-Producer: Thore Jollret
Cinematography by Tristan Chenais
Film Editor: Sanjeev Hathiramani
Release: Nov. 11, 2021 (Germany) and North American premiere on IndiePix Unlimited on April 7, 2023
How to Watch: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt11080922/?ref_=adv_li_tt
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