We Are Young. We Are Strong.

24 August 1992, Rostock. In this East German city a crowd gathers outside a refugee hostel, surrounds the building and sets it on fire. Inside are more than a hundred Vietnamese workers and a group of journalists. More than three thousand people watch and applaud. The police are late, the politicians hesitate. Burhan Qurbani tells that day from three vantages: Lien, a young Vietnamese woman in the hostel; Stefan, an insecure young man who joins the crowd; and Stefan's father Martin, a local politician making calculations. The film runs in black and white through the day, and colour arrives only at night, at the moment of the fire. The real subject is not the perpetrators but the onlookers. Qurbani shows how people come to spectate at violence. The film was among the eight shortlisted by Germany for the 88th Academy Awards. Who it's for: Anyone interested in Germany after reunification and in the social mechanics of racist violence. Who it's not for: It is hard to watch and the violence is direct. The room given to the young men who join the crowd will strike some viewers as too understanding.