Refugee Roads

During summer 2016, Timo Schmidt and Florian Volz, two students from Den Haag, cycled with their bikes across Europe, shooting a documentary about the journey of refugees fleeing their homes. Their trip lasted 71 days starting in The Netherlands, from where they headed to Calais in France, before continuing along the infamous Balkan Route, all the way to Lesbos and Athens. In other words, they cycled the Refugee Road in reverse. Motivated to explore how the discourse on refugees has changed since the formal closing of the Balkan Route, they soon realise that the fates of those still stuck in-between closed borders have everything except disappeared.