The interview
The documentary gives a good impression of the asylum process in Norway involving UDI, the Norwegian Directorate of Immigration. Several asylum cases are recorded by the camera, and interviews are shown between the asylum seekers and the UDI employees with the help of a translator. The hardest thing for the UDI employees to decide is who is telling the truth and who is withholding information or lying outright in order to get asylum.
Political Interest
In the documentary, a Chinese woman and her son, whose asylum applications were rejected in Germany, try for a second chance in Norway. These refugees fall under the Dublin Convention, which governs asylum procedures in the European countries in the Schengen Area. If an asylum seekers application is rejected in one of these European countries, he may not reapply in another Schengen country, unless he spends three months outside of the Schengen Area and then reapplies. Because of the Dublin Convention, asylum processes are almost all the same in every European country.
Social Interest
The documentary features a relatively neutral account of the processes within an organization such as UDI. The employees have the opportunity to talk about the issues they deal with and how they resolve them. It also shows how very bureaucratic a system can be in which certain rules have to be applied to reach a decision. Social and economic reasons are not enough to be accepted as a new citizen of, in this case, Norway. Applicants resort to fabricating tragic stories, which often do not have the intended effect. Despite this, the moment of rejection is very painful for the applicants.