A Youth (2020)

Peyman and his friends are a group of Afghan teenagers on the cusp of adulthood, who find themselves stuck in Athens, waiting for their asylum requests to be processed. Their hope is to reach mainland Europe and re-unite with their loved ones, but it could take years and possibly never happen. In limbo but armed with a new-found freedom, they kill time by aimlessly strolling around the city, sharing jokes about their situation, rap battles, stories of the past and dreams of the future. As Peyman, together with his mom, waits for the decision that could see them re-uniting with the rest of the family in Austria, he looks for answers amongst his friends, trying to make sense of the world around him through his music and poetry. If on one hand he wishes to re-unite with his brothers, on the other Peyman is battled as he knows that this will mean starting all over again, losing his friends and the city where he could finally find himself. As the streets of Athens gather crowds demanding for European internal borders to be reopened, allowing people on the move to reach safety and their loved ones, A YOUTH takes us into the intimate world of a group of adolescents, who learnt to be grown ups too early, but still strive for their right to be young.