A beautiful wordless dialogue between Iraqi traditional music and Finnish contemporary dance. Iraqi oud lute virtuoso Ali Alawad and Finnish choreographer Alpo Aaltokoski had planned to collaborate on a new work which would contemplate the similarities and differences between their cultures. But the rejection of Alawad’s asylum applications dramatically affected the final form of the work. To avoid forced repatriation, Alawad fled Finland two weeks before the premiere and so takes part in the performance via video projection. The piece touchingly brings out the human experience of the consequences of increasingly restrictive asylum policies.