Addai's story begins in the director's immediate surroundings, in a Germany which the boy leaves at the age of 20 to emigrate to Syria, driven by a free-willing spirit and a desire to change the world. After joining an Islamist religious group, Addai sinks deeper and deeper in the idealism it instills, while his mother, left behind, retraces his steps and embarks on a quest to solve the mystery of his disappearance. The testimony of one of his comrades, convicted and imprisoned on terrorism charges, a few maternal memories and the lament for an absent father, all piece together a portrait in absentia, heightened by the tenderness seeping through the director's perspective. The short-film, a hybrid between documentary and animation, is a retrospective glimpse into Addai's life, a closed road, paved with good intentions. (Andreea Chiper)