
New Beginning: The Anthem, Abdulaal (2021)
New Beginning is about young people who have come to the Netherlands alone or with other minors and develop a new identity here. The images are part of the Shadow Game project in which adolescents try to circumvent natural borders, border guards and police stations in their attempts to reach Europe. A game of life and death: by train, boat or on foot.
Photographer and documentary maker Çiğdem Yüksel, together with young people with a refugee history, was looking for a way to tell their stories. These stories transcend ‘being a refugee’ because the people they portray are much more than that. They are confident and resilient but also vulnerable and traumatised.
Yüksel presents the story of Abdulaal. In this video, Abdulaal sings a cappella the national anthems of the countries through which he travelled as a 16-year-old to get to the Netherlands. He has learned the lyrics by heart and shows respect for these countries. The national anthems of Sudan, Eritrea, Libya, Morocco, France, Germany and the Netherlands can be heard successively.