When Adnan Comes Home

At the end of 2003, the seventeen-year-old Iraqi Adnan was arrested and put in jail. He had stolen two metres of electrical cable, something that Iraqi law deems a crime against the state. He then got transferred from the police station to the juvenile prison to await trial. There, among the serious criminals, fate dealt Adnan an awful blow. In an attempt to escape, a fire broke out, and Adnan was seriously burned, especially on his face and hands. Filmmaker Andrew Berends obtained permission to film in the prison and grew increasingly involved in Adnan's story. During the film shoot, he actually became an intermediary between the desperate young man and his family. At first, Adnan's father was so angry and embarrassed about his son's offence that he refused to go see him. In the wake of the fire, however, compassion takes the upper hand and he and the rest of the family do their best to help Adnan recover and come home as soon as possible. This gives rise to an intimate portrait of daily life in an Iraqi family, in which love for each other is important, but the will of God plays a major role as well.