When young Turkish-German woman Umay can no longer stand her husband’s ill-treatment, she flees from Istanbul with her five-year-old son into the arms of her family in Berlin.

Based on the real-life story of an honor killing that took place in Berlin in 2005, When We Leave marks the debut of actor-turned-director Feo Aladag. With subtlety and great sensitivity, Aladag mounts a potent study in cultural assimilation, mapping the various dead-end roads of forced conformity.