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April 25, 2017

Togo: Inspiring film project needs your support!

How many times have we heard in recent years that hundreds and thousands of Africans have been killed on their way to Europe? Many drowned, others were shot or died in the desert. These bad news don't seem to scare off people from Africa to emmigrate from their countries. Always looking for a way out of the misery, they find new paths to Europe, mostly dangerous ones. Once they made it over to the "promised lands", they encounter a harsh reality; having to face racism, exclusion, isolation and social disadvantage next to the inherent loss of their home. But despite all these difficulties, many Africans are still dreaming of Europe and the better life there. How so?
How do they get there? What about the people they leave behind? Wives, family, friends? And above all, how is their relationship with their countries of origin?

The story of "Geh, sieg und komm zurück" or "Va, Vaincs et Reviens" (engl.: Go, Win and Return) is exemplary for nowadays migration and its stakes: Henoch, the protagonist of the film, lives in Lomé/Togo and is engaged to Flora. He is dealing with second-hand clothes, but is actually a French teacher. With a loan he emigrates to Germany, hoping to find a better future there for his family and friends at home. His life in Germany is not so bright. His fiance Flora suffers from the separation. She is supported by her cousin Rita, who has also been waiting for her boyfriend Gaston. In Germany, Henoch has difficulties to gain a foothold. Nothing meets his expectations but still he is promising to help all in Togo, who expect help from him. But when his stepmother dies, he cannot return and can hardly support the family. He becomes more and more embittered, and Flora is more solitary than ever. Henoch has a German friend, Klaus, who wants to help him return to Togo and start a business there, but he refuses his offer. He wants to be successful in Germany. One day he learns that Flora has a heavy car accident and is dying. Without money he has to return home.

"Go, Win and Return" is a silent movie, which manages without much dialogue. Most of the time, the audience hears the voices of the couple communicating despite the great distance, either via mobile phone or through time and space, as if their minds were connected. But what they think or tell is not always what is visible: Reality does not correspond to the ideas or reports they make about their lives. Imagination and reality, fact and fiction collide.

The movie is inspired by numerous real stories the director Samuel Akpene Wilsi has experienced himself. Deriving originally from Togo, he has been living in Germany for over 20 years and regularly returns to his home country. In Germany he often hears the question "Why are you coming here?" In Togo, he always hears "Can you help me go to Germany?" For the young artist it was important to make a film on the subject of seperation, expectations, fraud and false hopes to show the quiet life of immigrants from Africa and the hopeful but sometimes hopeless life of the women in their home countries, waiting desperately for their husbands.

The project is in need for funding to shoot final scenes in Germany and to accomplish the postproduction in Togo. Support this great feature film project and contribute to the success of a movie which shows "the other side" of migration in our times!

Call to Action
Togo: Inspiring film project needs your support!
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