IN MEMORIAM
A Documentary by Elisabeth Pointner and Martin Lintner | Austria, Greece 2021 | 64. Min.
Mória, summer 2020. It is hot between the tents, even hotter in the tents. The residents of the hopelessly overcrowded camp are suffering from inadequate sanitary infrastructures, the latent danger of the coronavirus, the associated exit restrictions and lockdowns, internal camp tensions and acts of violence. In addition, the inhabitants are confronted with fascist attacks from outside, as well as overburdened Greek authorities and a lack of willingness on the part of the European Union to solve this humanitarian catastrophe on a political level. The camp is becoming a powder keg where families, pregnant women, children, unaccompanied minors and single men of diverse backgrounds are forced to live together under the most adverse circumstances, condemned to wait in uncertainty. The tensions ultimately erupt in a catastrophic fire on the night of 9 September 2020.
In the midst of all this, IN MEMORIAM tells of a developing friendship between a volunteer from Austria and a young refugee from Afghanistan who has not yet lost his hope for a better future. Over a period of five months, the film shows the continuously worsening humanitarian catastrophe on Lesbos. The everyday life, worries and problems of the people stranded in the camp are captured in intense and oppressive images of Elisabeth's and Ali's smartphone cameras.
