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Een beter leven

Documentary, 2008, 80 min.

Moroccan fathers tell their sons how and why they came to the Netherlands. From the first examination ('it was like a cattle market') to the more or less successful assimilation into Dutch society. Two fathers from the first generation of Moroccan immigrants who the film introduces tell similar stories. 'When I was young,' they impress on their sons, 'I had only one pair of trousers and one shirt.' The two men differ a great deal - one tells his story factually, in Moroccan; the other emotionally, in Dutch - but both talk candidly about their decision to come to Holland. The sons, who mostly grew up in the Netherlands, did not lack for much in comparison to their fathers, but the migration left deep scars with them, too. They hear about the sacrifices their fathers made for a better life - for themselves, but especially for their offspring. The respect they have for their dads, in the face of often problematic mutual relationships, is expressed in the rap one of them records with rapper Salah Edin.

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