This documentary, spanning a decade of filming by director David Bingong, offers a firsthand perspective on the perilous journeys of young West African migrants aiming to reach Europe. The narrative centers on a group of young men in Morocco as they prepare to cross the heavily guarded border into Spain in 2015, a dream shared by many hoping to support their families back home.

In a North-Macedonian village called Kanatlar, Ayten and Erdoğan raise their family, balancing the ancient Bektashi-dervish doctrine with the challenges of modern life and economy. This tobacco-growing valley is home to a few hundred Turks of the Bektashi Sufi order, an 800-year-old branch of Islam that teaches progressive ideas, even by today’s standards. They believe everyone and everything is equal, which gives women freedom and power that many other Muslims find blasphemous. Ayten and Erdoğan love each other deeply, but this love is mostly shown through their work for the family. This hard-working couple shows gender equality blooming where you would least expect it – in a rural community of Muslims devoted to religion, family and tradition in one of the poorest regions of the Balkans.