Margreth Olin / Norway / 2012 / 90min

Synopsis:

In 2009, the Norwegian government introduced several measures to restrict immigration. One of the measures is to grant temporary residence permits to unaccompanied children seeking asylum. At the age of 18, they are to be returned to their country of origin. In Norway, Child Welfare takes custody of children without close caregivers--but this does not apply to unaccompanied asylum-seeking children between the ages of 15 and 18.

In Nowhere Home, we get to know Goli from Kurdistan. He was deported from Norway the day after he turned 18, and we follow him as he embarks on a new flight. The brothers Hasan and Husein are from Afghanistan. Husein was literally paralyzed with fear when his brothers were denied residency in Norway. We follow Khalid when he receives his final reply from the Immigration Appeal Board on his 18th birthday.

Nowhere Home is a film about teenagers who fight to keep their hopes for a dignified life. A close, touching, and provoking encounter, it questions the management of basic ethical principles of our time.

Director Bio:

Margreth Olin (b. 1970) studied media and mass-communication at the University of Bergen and the University of Oslo, and media, journalism, and documentary filmmaking at Volda University College. She made her debut as a documentary filmmaker with her graduation film In the House of Love in 1994. Her first feature length documentary, In the House of Angels (1998), received the National Film Award (Amanda) for Best Documentary in 1999. She has since written and directed several award-winning documentaries, including My Body (2002) and the feature length Raw Youth (2004). Among many other awards and accolades, My Body won Olin her second Amanda for Best Documentary in 2002. Raw Youth was nominated for the same award as well as for the European Film Awards in 2005.

Olin has also directed fiction films, making her debut in this field with the short film Gluttony, as part of the portmanteau film The Seven Deadly Sins in 2000. Her first feature-length fiction film, The Angel, premiered in 2009 and was another tour de force, winning over critics, audiences and award-juries alike. The highly acclaimed drama was also selected as the Norwegian candidate for the 2010 Academy Awards for Best Foreign Language Film.

Olin is also the managing director of the Norwegian production company Speranza Film AS, producing both shorts, feature-length films, and television series. She is also a highly sought after lecturer, both in Norway and abroad, often focusing on topics from her films and techniques of storytelling.

Awards:

Best Norwegian Documentary 2012, Bergen International Film Festival

Best Documentary 2013, The Norwegian Documentary Film Festival

Special Mention 2013, Planete+ Doc Film Festival