At an uncertain hour: stories of refugees

At an Uncertain Hour is the literary account of this intimate and intriguing introduction to refugees, people on the move who temporarily find a home in an asylum centre: 'At an uncertain hour, people are waiting here for an even less certain future.'

For writing his play 'Saw it on television/DIDN'T UNDERSTAND', which was performed all over Flanders in 2004, the young theatre maker Michael De Cock interviewed refugees for years. Initially, he had a cliché image of these people: 'The kind you occasionally see on the news - dead or alive. A real refugee, I was sure of that, came here in the back of a truck. The plane is for wimps.'

But gradually he gains the trust of his conversation partners and discovers revealing and disturbing life stories. What starts with a few portraits soon becomes much more. Michael follows 'his' refugees intensively in their actions: life in the asylum center, visiting their lawyer, their small problems, their great sorrow... In the beginning he is a privileged witness, towards the end he becomes more and more a companion, even an ally.