Feature documentary · 2024
Auf Umwegen
A family drives overland from Germany to Asia — and gets stuck in India for ten months when the authorities refuse to let their newborn leave.
The story
In March 2022 the family sets off with two small daughters — no fixed destination, no return ticket. Through Turkey, Georgia and Iran they reach India, where their third child is born. Days later the nightmare starts: the authorities refuse to let the baby leave the country. What began as a journey became a film about hospitality, bureaucracy and a family that refuses to give up.
- Regie
- Timo Götz, Salima Oudefel
- Jahr
- 2024
- Facts
- 123 min · FSK 0
On the road
Our route
We left Bad Schwalbach in late March 2022 and came back two years later: through Bulgaria and Turkey to Georgia, across Iran, then to Dubai and on to India — Mumbai, Goa, Jaipur, Delhi. Enya was born there, and the exit permit became a ten-month ordeal. Home via Nepal and Kazakhstan, by ship across the Black Sea.
The line is schematic — overland legs follow real roads.
Press
„Ein warmherziges Plädoyer für Humanität, Toleranz und Völkerverständigung."
„Abenteuer pur. … Manchmal kam eben alles ganz anders als gedacht."
„Ein Loblied auf Reisefreiheit, Gastfreundschaft und Weltoffenheit."
„Ein inspirierender Einblick in das Leben einer sympathischen, mutigen Familie."
Screening, talk or a lesson at your school?
Timo and Salima bring the film to cinemas, schools, universities and cultural venues — with a Q&A, a travel talk or a school screening. Online works too.
Cinema tour
The film played in cinemas across Germany — with premieres, audience Q&As and the filmmakers on stage.
This family’s second film
“Auf Umwegen” is the second feature documentary by Timo Götz and Salima Oudefel. The first, “Auf dem Weg – when encounters change you”, covered three years in Asia between 2016 and 2019.
About →What happens to the family after the film, we write about on The Living Classroom
The next project
From spring 2027 we are back on the road — this time with all three daughters. The third film is being made along the way. We tell the rest on our other site.
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We write rarely — but when we do: new screenings, the Amazon release, festivals.