Facing Mecca

The hospital calls Fareed; his wife’s cancer has reached its terminal stage. Swiss pensioner Roli comes to his help and takes him to the hospital but the wife passes away shortly after, leaving the Syrian refugee alone with two daughters. Fareed wants to see his wife buried in accordance with Muslim rites but problems quickly arise: the graves in the local cemetery have not been aligned to face Mecca; the council is unable or unwilling to carry out the burial within 24 hours after death. Unimpressed by the council’s tactical heal-dragging, together they stumble into a bewildering forest of Swiss bureaucracy to which Roli finds a beautifully simple answer…