Wir brauchen den festen Boden unter den Füßen
university, the 2004 Tsunami devestates South-East Asia. Unexpectedly, the young students are sent to the
desaster area in Sri Lanka. After a short introduction to psycho-traumatologie, they have to face a
shattered country and are supposed to give anti-trauma training to teachers and children.
Surrounded by ruines, temporary shelters and common graves, they will work for the first time in their future
profession. Relief-aid or self-help?
Jan-Heinrich lives reclusively like a hermit in a cyber world that he controls from his basement in
german suburbia. He has built up the world‘s largest private Internet archive on the Tsunami
desaster. He collects every picture and video about the catastrophy and tries to reconstruct the details of the
event. The catastrophy has become his guide line in life and has given sense to his obsession.
Unintentionally, he has become a helper.
Alison couldn‘t stand to stay in her comfortable appartment in New York and follow the desaster on her
plasma TV. She decided to buy a ticket on her own expenses and go to Sri Lanka to volunteer as a nurse.
Her diary draws an inside view on the horror and suffering of this human catastrophy, while the camera
guides us through an apocalyptic world that testifies death and loss in every square meter.
Step by step, Alison is drawn deeper into the collective trauma and powerlessness.
Three stories of people inside a catastrophy - a film about relief-aid and a journey to selfdiscovery.