Die Demokratie ist los!

Many Tamil refugees, even after years in Switzerland, still have only temporary residence permits. Their lives are worn down by the constant fight for permits and work, authorization to travel and education. Wanakam tells the story of Nixsan, put in a home for children, who has stopped talking since he fled from Sri Lanka; of Sasi, who is consumed with homesickness; of Mena, on her difficult path to independence and of Aiya, who escapes his loneliness with sad songs. The film illustrates how family structures are shattered by government-ordered isolation and also raises questions concerning the humaneness of integration policies.

Has the catastrophe already happened or is it about to? Two men and a woman sit in their bunker-like apartments, as if they were in a waiting room. Overwhelmed by the flood of media information and guidebook words of wisdom, they seek stability in the piano play of the educated middle-class and Far-eastern self-optimization techniques. Their passive bewilderment turns into frenzied activism. Now something has to happen! But nothing does.