Travelling is in my nature, I have always felt the appeal of faraway places. To step into another world, be a stranger and be continually amazed. Those experiences allow me to look at things in a new way, over and over again.

To me, it was important to find out how do I relate to the issue of the refugees. I didn’t know how to relate to it by reading newspapers and watching television. I took my car and drove to Calais, a refugee camp in France, and later to Greece, to meet the travellers myself. I found out the reality I was confronted with in the camps was very different from what I had seen in the media. It made me realize I could make a film to open up another perspective.
Journalism is mostly focussing on actions that are exceptional, when something is going wrong. It is hard to identify with such situations or people who are in it. For this reason, I wanted to film their daily lives. I wanted to come closer by not showing the unnatural situations of interviews given, but to see the people cooking their food, playing football or fishing.

It was shocking all over but I was not too much interested in shocking facts – they create a big gap between them and us. I was interested in showing life, people, what they are doing, and that they are maybe not so different from us.

Actually, it changed me a lot. It is not often that I have to redefine myself and change the way I look at things that much. I found out that an opinion is not that interesting; actually, I found that what’s interesting is a dynamic opinion more than a fixed point of view. So for me, the film is not only about refugees but also about how you look at things, how your opinion is shaped.

While doing my work, I’m kind of fearless because it has to be realised. It just has to be done, so any rule there is I will break it. While being in the middle of a project, it’s normal for me to create my own rules because, actually, realising something that has not yet been done is about breaking the rules and crossing borders – I also have to cross my own to create a new work.

I felt the need to offer or give my truth or reality, which was missing in the field of other realities. There was a gate with soldiers and a big fence, so to me, it was important to get in and find out what was going on inside. And there was so much to tell about in the camps that’s hidden to the world…

The highlights are in the making of the works themselves: building a gate in the Sahara desert, travelling with an airplane I built myself over Central-Africa, and recently staying with and filming the refugees. It was so special to meet all these people and to hear their stories. Also, it was great to build up the exhibition in Rotterdam and present the work to the public.

I’m not talking about on-going projects, I’m sorry. I will when they are there!