In den Iran. Zu Fuss. Ohne Pass

More than 4,000 kilometers and eight countries separate Mehdi Maturi from his mother. For almost his entire life, he thought she was dead. When, in his mid-twenties, he learns that he was abducted to Germany by his father shortly after his birth and that she is still alive, he is desperate to meet her. The problem: he can't legally travel to see her in Iran. So he comes up with a crazy plan. He sets off from Stuttgart to Tehran with his hiking backpack and follows the refugee route in the opposite direction, over mountains and rivers, on smuggled trails and dirt roads, through snow and scree. He has no idea how hard the road will be and how he will get back. For him, only one thing matters: his mother's smile. "I hardly told anyone what I was going to do. I didn't want anyone to worry. Or stop me." Mehdi Maturi.