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WELKOM
A film about loss, hope, starting over and love
(lots of love)
Actress Nazanin Taheri from Iran photographed by Bert Nijman
WELCOME is a light-hearted coming-of-age film that takes place in a dull Dutch village and revolves around the lives of the five main characters Tara, Hassan, Wilma, Shilêr and Ronnie.
When the local supermarket starts a work experience project for refugees and shortly afterwards it is announced that the local asylum seekers center is going to close, everyone is confronted with their status in life and all the characters have to reinvent themselves.
logline
Tina Fey & Amy Poehler in 'Sisters' (2015)
real life stories
The idea for this film is the reason why the Buddy Film Foundation was founded in 2017.
WELCOME is a movie written entirely for the available cast and crew we've met over the years. The story for the film is largely based on real stories, real people and real events. A film that brings together the stories that we have heard in recent years from our participants, of whose lives we have become a part and vice versa. WELCOME must become a film in which and with which they can show their talents and thereby definitively present their business card to the Dutch film sector. In this way we hope that our new film colleagues, from thirteen different countries, can continue their career in Dutch film, where their passion lies.
Helana Sawires & Osamah Sami in 'Ali's Wedding' (2017)
Saoirse Ronan in 'Lady Bird' (2017)
the stories that never make the news
WELCOME is a film in which the diversity and ethnicity of the characters sometimes play a role and sometimes are just a given. Whether it concerns the larger or supporting roles, or even at the figurative level: it is a palette of the diversity that the Netherlands has to offer: young, old, disabled, LGBTQ+, migrant, refugee, immigrant, and native and from almost every conceivable cultural and ethnic background.
With WELCOME we want to offer a window to the stories that never make the news: the real world, in which people have to survive together, build their lives, make friends, fall in love, be angry and sad and come to unexpected insights into themselves.
The script for WELCOME was written by Dennis Overeem from an idea of filmmaker Beri Shalmashi and Dennis.
Actor Arabi Ghibeh from Syria photographed by by Bert Nijman
Actor Omar Sy in 'Samba' (2014)
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