AMALI

AMALI follows Hussain Badran, a young, multifaceted artist and musician: a Syrian refugee navigating Greek society during what the world calls a "refugee crisis." The film travels with him through the process of requesting political asylum in Athens, where he supports himself as a visual artist and has become an essential voice within a collective of displaced musicians.

He was born in Ras al-Ain, a town on Syria's northern border. When the war reached it, he left the only way that remained — a boat before dawn, a five-hour crossing he feared less than the police he was fleeing. Three months on the island of Samos became more than a year in Athens, his hopes set on asylum deeper into Europe, and on Germany. In his paintings, he renders himself as a bird.

With no diploma to show and no Syrian embassy in Greece to issue one, Hussain teaches the language he is still learning. "I will teach them freedom," he says.

Today, Hussain Badran lives in Germany as an independent artist, his work shown across Europe and the Arab world. The film's title, AMALI, is Arabic for my hopes — and those hopes were answered.