The skin of my soul

As a six-year-old girl, AnNisa is handed over to a smuggler by her grandmother and sent to Germany by plane to escape the violent turmoil in her home country. The torn feelings between her barely remembered homeland and her experiences in Germany, along with her search for home and belonging, shape her work. AnNisa's life is one of being "in between": "I smile with the weight of two worlds on my shoulders and try not to break down." Life in cold Germany, enduring ten years with a temporary residency permit and many years in a refugee shelter, is marked by confinement, human coldness, and racism. AnNisa asks: How does one earn the "right to belong here"? Her identities are shaped by societal appropriation, by labeling, and by alienation. Who is allowed to be her and who is not? AnNisa has the courage to embark on a journey to find herself and to reject the boundaries that others impose. By seeking peace and finding the freedom to stand by herself, AnNisa builds bridges between war and peace, between pain and healing: "We are our own bridges to peace. – I want to invite you into a world beyond sea bridges.".