Poverty, Refugees & Migrant Workers

The political upheavals of the last twenty years have created massive flows of refugees and asylum seekers who have been torn from their homelands and found themselves in the heart of the West. They fled wars, natural disasters or poverty and set out on a journey to win a better life. At the same time, the exploitation never ceases to exist – it merely takes on new forms. In the richest countries and in the most neglected and poorest corners of the globe, workers of all professions find themselves deprived of their most basic rights. This year's festival films showcase the most powerful and courageous struggles of workers for equality and human rights, which often begin in the lowest and darkest of places alongside feature films and documentaries from around the world that tell the stories of work immigrants – about the hopes and disappointments of new beginnings, and the extreme powers that try to stop them, from xenophobia to manipulative regimes.