Synopsis

In the densely forested hills above Ceuta,a Spanish enclave in Africa, 57 young Indian immigrants await their fate. They have crossed half the planet to get to Europe and now they can see Gibraltar and the Spanish coast - just 14 kilometers away on the other side of the Strait - but they cannot reach them. They are stuck in the juridical limbo of Ceuta: and after 2 years in the city’s migrant detention centre, and faced with a deportation, they decide to flee one night, and set up shanty camps in the nearby mountains.
The film approaches the experience of the group through a very intimate portrait of five main protagonists. Babu, Mili, Rocky, Happy and Guri are very different characters, thrown together by circumstances and bound to each other for survival. We follow their daily life during their 2 years in the hills, their hopes and frustrations, as they confront the hardships of surviving in the forest and reckon with their fate. Their lives are buffeted by geopolitical realities they cannot control such as the incipient crisis and stricter European migration policies. The film highlights the evolution of their relationships and attitudes as they confront conflicts within the group, homesickness and uncertainty. The viewer shares in their anxiety as they await a solution, and joins them in the emotional conclusion.
Our commitment is to the subjective experience of the individual protagonists, allowing them to speak and act in their own language and their own daily struggles. Our point of view is always alongside that of its protagonists as they attempt to make sense of what is happening to them. Likewise the style of filming, with its rigorous attention to visual quality, colour and composition, is also more akin to fiction film than to most documentary reportage.