Hanna Asefaw grew up in a flat in Oslo with her Eritrean family in the late 90s. The council block, 32 Sannergata, housed various low-income families. Asefaws parents fled to Norway from the war in Ethiopia in the 80s. Her mother’s cooking brought along East African flavors, filling the air in the apartment with various spices. To Hanna, it smelled like home.
Growing older, Hanna discovered the unspoken rules of the building. How she was never allowed to stay over at her friend's place, the neglected girl next door. What the boy Kasper meant, who lived with his grandmother, when he told her his dad «had taken too much medicine, and therefore had to sleep forever». How the Norwegian neighbors looked at Hanna’s culture with both curiosity and skepticism, and how the community created unity and friendship, despite all their differences.
Later, the building was sold to a private investor and the tenants were evicted.
Told through Asefaw’s autobiographical poem «Sannergata 32», based on her childhood memories, the film addresses societal challenges that concern us all - access to safe homes, and ownership of the stories that are told about the places we belong.
