Retreat

Over the past twenty years, thousands of young people were recruited in North Macedonia to work in the kitchens and laundries of the US military bases in Afghanistan and Iraq. Their wages were then invested by their families back home in the construction of small palaces and lucrative real estate. With the withdrawal of the last troops from Afghanistan in 2021, many "Avganistanci" returned – bringing with them their traumas and war experiences. This documentary depicts the complex connections between supposedly far-off and abstract wars and their very real effects at home. It demonstrates the price of labour migration and exposes the gains and losses of decades of political and economic crises.

Source: 72. Internationale Filmfestspiele Berlin (Catalogue)