Reneé van der Ven

Fadil is an Iraqi refugee who works as a telephone interpreter. From his attic room he translates calls between refugees and government agencies. At the start of every contact, he says: ‘I am your interpreter, I am impartial and will not interfere with this conversation.’ Even though Fadil lives in the Netherlands with his family, he knows people who still reside in war zones. How does it affect him when the witnessing of these conversations confront him with various dilemmas and let him relive his own past?

A multi-narrative drama set in a typical southern Dutch village that prepares for the holidays. It turns out the compulsory conviviality can’t drown out the everyday problems of some of the inhabitants: troubles at the town council, the silent struggle of a lonely grandmother, and a bullied teenager.