Dir.: Kadir Sözen; Script: Kadir Sözen; Phot.: Franz Rath; Ed.: Mevlüt Koçak; Mus.: Orhan Temur; Cast: Menders Samancilar, Meral Yüzgüleç, Gandi Mukli, Cengiz Sezici, Uur Çavuolu, Ani Ippekkaya, Ali Tutal; Prod. & Sales: Kadir Sözen, Filmfabrik Spiel- und Dokumentarfilmproduktion GmbH, Raderberger Strasse 173-175, 50 968 Cologne (Allemagne), tél.: (49-221) 93 47 67 0, fax: (49-221) 93 47 67 11.

Mehmet Umut is a Turkish immigrant living with his wife and young son in Cologne. His resident's permit expires and early one morning, without warning, the police come to his apartment and arrest him. That very day he is expelled from Germany and sent back to Turkey, leaving behind his family, horrified and helpless. In Istanbul, Mehmet manages to scrape up a meagre living doing odd jobs and sleeping on park benches. There is no way he can get back to his home town of Gaziantep in southern Anatolia: he barely has enough money to live on. After several failed attempts to get an appointment at the German Consulate, Mehmet manages to file an application for an entry visa to Germany but, after a few days, it is rejected without explanation. In desperation, Mehmet turns to a group of smugglers who inform him that it will cost him 7000 marks to get back -- illegally -- into Germany. In order to help raise the exorbitant sum, Mehmet's wife is forced to sell her wedding jewellery. Mehmet manages to raise the rest by dishonest means and the group of travellers -- including Mehmet, his friend Müslüm and an old woman and her grandchild -- set out in a minibus bound for Bulgaria, Romania and Hungary. At the mercy of the group's leader, the travellers are forced to pay additional bribes at each customs check and they are finally abandoned in a third-rate hotel on the outskirts of Budapest. They've been duped. Seized by their own desperate courage, Mehmet and the others gather up their pitiful belongings and continue their journey into Austria. The trip is only beginning.