BETWEEN EXILE AND LOSS
A film by Motasim Morsal Adam (Teko) and David Fedele (7mins / 2026)
CO-DIRECTOR | CAMERA | PROTAGONIST
Motasim Morsal Adam (Teko) is a young Sudanese poet and filmmaker from Darfur, Sudan.
Forced to flee the war in Sudan in 2023, he travelled through Chad, Libya and Algeria before eventually reaching Morocco, where he currently lives as a refugee.
There he met filmmaker David Fedele, and together they collaborated to create Between Exile and Loss, using photographs and video footage taken by Motasim throughout his journey — much of this material smuggled out of prisons and detention centres.
Between Exile and Loss is Motasim's first film.
MAKING THE FILM
In 2025, I met Motasim Morsal Adam (Teko) for the first time, following a screening of my film "This Jungo Life" in Casablanca, Morocco.
Motasim introduced himself, and told me that he had filmed and photographed his entire journey of exile from Sudan to Morocco - and somehow managed to keep all of his footage and photos safe.
We met some months later, and Motasim showed me a video that he had made with all of this footage and photographs, using just his phone, accompanied by an original poem that he had written.
He had made this video to show to the UNHCR to support his claim for asylum in Morocco - but they never gave him the opportunity to show them this film.
I thought it was extraordinary, so I promised him that when I returned to Morocco in 2026, we could work together to turn the video into a “film”.
That film, is "BEYOND EXILE AND LOSS".
DAVID FEDELE
MOTASIM MORSAL ADAM (TEKO)
CO-DIRECTOR | PRODUCER | EDITOR
David Fedele is an award-winning independent documentary filmmaker, particularly interested in exploring cultural, humanitarian, environmental and social justice issues around the world.
His films have explored themes related to refugees, asylum seekers and migration in North and West Africa, electronic waste (e-waste) in Ghana, and illegal logging in Papua New Guinea, and have been screened widely around the world, including at the European Parliament in Brussels (Belgium).
David was selected to participate at Berlinale Talents as part of Berlin International Film Festival (2014). He was President of the Jury at the SREM International Environmental Film Festival (2015) in Serbia, and a Jury Member at multiple international film festivals, most recently at Festival Imigratoria (2026) in Portugal.
David's last three feature films "This Jungo Life", "REVENIR (To Return) and "The Land Between" have all explored issues related to refugees, asylum seekers and migration between the African and European continents, and he continues to stay deeply connected to the Sudanese and South Sudanese refugee communities in Morocco.
FILMMAKERS
Statement by filmmaker David Fedele
