Exile

Year 2020
Runtime 1h 43min
Rating M18 (Nudity)
Language German, Albanian
Subtitles English
Director Visar Morina
Producer Maren Ade, Jonas Dornbach, Janine Jackowski
Screenwriter Visar Morina
Cinematographer Matteo Cocco
Cast Misel Maticevic, Sandra Hüller, Rainer Bock

Xhafer, a 45 year old, Kosovo-born pharmaceutical engineer living in Germany suddenly feels discriminated against and bullied at work because of his ethnic background. When Xhafer finds a dead rat hanging from the gate in front of his home, it is immediately clear to him that his racist colleagues could be behind it. Every occurrence, every word, every gesture is taken as evidence. Xhafer’s uneasiness grows every day. His German wife Nora is tired of him playing the racism card all the time. Do his colleagues simply dislike him? Or is there more to their hostility? Is this all in his mind or is it the actual reality?

Exile chronicles a steadily growing, though possibly imagined, threat. As Xhafer loses his job, wife, and his family, he walks a delicate tightrope between his life as an integrated, middle-class family man, and foreigner in his adopted country.

A thriller about paranoia and identity that’s simultaneously dark and surreal, with echoes of genre cinema and an unconventional sense of humour.

AWARDS
Sarajevo Film Festival
- Best Film
- Cineuropa Award

German Film Critics Association
- Best Actor

Trieste Film Festival
- Best Film

Sundance Film Festival
- Nominated for Grand Jury Prize