For many people, fleeing across the Mediterranean to Europe is often their last hope of escaping war, persecution, and hunger. As more and more women and children are forced to take one of the most dangerous escape routes in the world, a midwife is now part of the crew on a sea rescue ship. WHERE THE WAVES TOOK HER accompanies Berlin midwife Anne-Katrin on her first rescue mission. Her journey is told in parallel with the women’s stories of escape. While we get to know the strong female care team on board along with Anne-Katrin and prepare for an emergency with them, the women who have fled tell their stories of the suffering that their escape to Europe has brought them on a carefully designed visual level using long exposures and in a studio filled with water. The long exposures create blurred, poetic images that not only serve to anonymize and protect, but also convey the emotional intensity of the situation in a new way. On the ship, the worlds of the women and the crew collide for a brief moment before the women arrive in Italy and begin yet another journey into the unknown.
