Paul

"You won't make it"

“I’m Paul” he says in English. “Pleasure” is my answer, while I try to unfold my chair.

Only 10 minutes until the open-air cinema starts. 10 minutes in which I fight with my chair. 10 minutes in which Paul tells me how he made his way from Africa to Germany.

“So how come you are in Berlin?” “I’m helping with a documentary…it’s about me. I’m a refugee.”

Paul started his journey in North Africa, in a tiny boat. With him there was a journalist who wanted to cover the refugees journey. When he saw Paul’s boat he said right away, “You won’t make it.”

But some time later his case showed up in the media —  a small boat full of human beings off the Spanish coast.

Paul made it. He arrived in Spain. But it wouldn’t be the end. Germany was his destination since the beginning.