No U-Turn

No U-Turn also screens digitally nationwide between May 20 – 26 on HRWFF’s digital streaming platform. Watch here.

Q&A with Director Ike Nnaebue and Abraham Paulos, Deputy Director of Policy and Communications at Black Alliance for Just Immigration (BAJI).

As a young man, celebrated Nigerian director Ike Nnaebue left Nigeria taking the route via Benin, Mali, and Mauritania to Morocco where he was forced to turn back, unable to reach Europe. In his first documentary, No U-Turn, he retraces the life-changing journey he made over 20 years ago. Along the way, he meets those who are taking the same trip and, through conversations with them, tries to understand what motivates young people today to expose themselves to the dangers of a passage into an uncertain future. Most are aware of the dangers of traveling undocumented by road, yet more and more are joining the ranks of those who take this risk, despite widely circulated images and terrifying testimonies found online of people who have been lured into slavery and bondage. Overlaid with a powerful poetic commentary, this self-reflective travelogue hints at the deep longing of an entire generation for a better life.