Edition: 2010

Selected by the Festival: DIALËKTUS EUROPEAN DOCUMENTARY AND ANTHROPOLOGICAL FILM FESTIVAL, Budapest, Hungary

Award winner: GOLDEN DEER AWARD - HUMAN STORIES

Year of production: 2008

Country of production: Netherlands

Production: Holland Harbour Productions

Set in: Belgium

Duration: 65'

Film: Color

Directed by: Ingeborg Jansen

On the left bank of the Scheldt, a block of high-rise flats is towering on its surroundings. The people of Antwerp have named it the “Chicago block” and perceive it as a place to avoid. Belgians of modest means live here next door to immigrants, representing over 35 nationalities on 26 storeys. The camera is set up in the lift of this concrete beehive, catching the occupants as they pass by. It follows some of them home, picking up on their stories, some big, others small; stories whose dignity and strength of will reach out far beyond their surroundings.