Amina's Smile

What does origin mean, what does home mean, what does language mean? Björn Bicker's stories hit right to the heart, they are unsparing, of a great warmth and show us that love is perhaps the only reliable certainty. And storytelling.

Amina can't take it anymore, and knocks down a man in the subway who spat in her face. But did he really do this? Why does Igor, who was so helpful and attentive in Fatma's theater club, suddenly attack a fellow pupil with a knife? What about the man who came into foster care as a child, why don’t the voices in his head keep silent? And why does a four-year-old child stop talking? Sometimes it's just one sentence that turns a life upside down. As in the case of Eva and Ada and their two children, when Eva says: "Children, Arne, Lotta, don't you just want to call Ingo Papa?”
The people in these ten stories assert their place and identity in a society in which they are perceived as different in various ways, whether because of their sexual orientation, because they are poor or sick, or because their parents or grandparents once came from another country. They study, they work as teachers, in the theater, on themselves, as lawyers, cleaners or photographers. And they are struggling with themselves, with society, for what makes them who they are: their humanity.