For a Moment Freedom (For a Moment)

For a Moment Freedom (Ein Augenblick Freiheit / Pour un instant la liberté) is a 2008 drama written and directed by Austrian-Iranian filmmaker Arash T. Riahi. His feature debut, a co-production of Austria, France, and Turkey, follows three different groups of refugees fleeing Iran and Iraq who, on the verge of freedom, find themselves stranded in Ankara, waiting anxiously and indefinitely for the outcome of their asylum applications. Riahi portrays the fragile, transient condition of people forced to migrate in a tone that is both tragic and at times humorous. The film, which took about five years to make, screened at more than twenty international festivals and won numerous prizes, including the audience award at the Tromsø International Film Festival, and was selected as Austria's submission for the 2009 Academy Awards.