Directors' commentary
The story of „When Namibia was a city...“ evolved in a year-long process. Part of this process was watching Yusuf from the perspective of his son. It all began when Yusuf was not able to work anymore out of medical reasons. And it took an end when his son left the parent's home. During this time the roles in the family shifted: the mother took the role of the provider, the son emancipated himself from his parents. To watch how Yusuf handled this change was the inspiration for this film. The central occurance was indeed a game of „categories“ in which one could see how the father took an irrelevancy to his heart, tried to distract from his ignorance and found shelter with his computer. There was a moment where one noticed, that sometimes the unexpressed tells us more than the expressed. And that was our starting point.