Transit Camp Friedland For millions of people, arrival at the Friedland camp in Niedersachsen marked the beginning of a new life - or at least a respite from a life on the run. The British military government opened the camp for German refugees and returning soldiers in September 1945. Today, Friedland is a reception center for asylum seekers and refugees. Many have abandoned everything back home and risked their lives getting to Europe. We accompanied some refugees during their stay in the camp and also talked to people who came to Friedland in the early days. All had dramatic stories to tell. 'When I meet children from Syria or elsewhere in Friedland today, I am always meeting myself," says Annelie Keil, who arrived there as an eight-year-old child in 1947. How different are the feelings, experiences and aspirations of the people in this place where so many decades of escape stories intersect?

Transit Camp Friedland

What is consciousness? Is it in all living beings? What happens when we die? Why do we seem to be hardwired for mystical experience? In these times of existential crisis, there has been an explosion of research into consciousness. After four centuries of silence, scientists are confronting the "Big Questions", cutting a window into a realm previously held tight by philosophy and religion: AWARE follows six brilliant researchers, approaching the greatest of all mysteries from radically different perspectives, from within and without: through high-tech brain research and Eastern meditation, by scientifically exploring inner space through psychedelic substances and by investigating the consciousness of plants. Scientists are arriving at new insights - some have been integral to Indigenous knowledge for millenia. AWARE opens as a science film but emerges well beyond the explicable, ultimately leading one on a voyage upon the ocean of consciousness, a contemplative, sensual, cinematographic meditation. The networks of consciousness are reflected in 'grand' imagery revealing the vast interconnectedness of Nature - from the smallest organisms, to the world of plants and animals and on to the cosmos. It invites one to experience the awe and mystery of life as the researchers do, to dive in with them, returning to see the world anew, to review long-held beliefs and assumptions and initiate one's own oceanic journey. Ultimately, to be aware one is aware. With Richard Boothby, Monica Gagliano, Roland Griffiths, Josefa Kirvin Kulix, Christof Koch, Matthieu Ricard and Mingyur Rinpoche.