I'm New Here (2017)

Guangzhou, China. A building erected in the communist style of the eighties: Tian Xiu. Since many years this is the Eldorado for African migrants who massively try their luck in this city. Electronics, clothes, furniture, building materials...: everything is for sale here. For a good price, although the quality sometimes leaves much to be desired. Because nothing gets produced in Africa, the men and women in Tian Xiu hope to get rich through trade with their home continent. 'I'm New Here' sketches a unique look behind the scenes of a new economic relationship between the African continent and the superpower China through some of the people that populate Tian Xiu. Some adapt with an unseen speed. They learn the language, build relationships, earn money and survive. Others have difficulty with the constant changing of the Chinese laws which make their lives more difficult. The deals they make fail because of miscommunication. Racism - whether under the surface or not - is omnipresent in this country that does not have any tradition with waves of migration from outside of their borders. But not everyone who wants to leave, can just do so. They often put all of their money on this Chinese bet and don't have the means anymore to return. Because of the political and economic situation in their homeland, a future over there is all the more hopeless. Tian Xiu is a silent but privileged witness of the demise of the umpteenth Eldorado for the Africans.