Rida is 8 years old. The extroverted girl fled with her family from Pakistan to Europe. Now she lives in Hotel City Plaza, a self-organised refugee shelter in Athens. Rida is playful and witty. At the same time she seems mature and far older than a young child. She tells us about her journey, the difficulties on the escape and the dark past overshadowed by the Taliban. The Hotel City Plaza was built for the Greek Olympics in Athens in 2004 after which it was empty for many years. In April 2016 a solidarity group occupied the empty hotel and created a shelter for refugees. Over 400 people live there including 180 children. The shelter is self-organised. The inhabitants participate in the daily organisation of the shelter in kitchen, cleaning or security shifts.
We follow Rida in her day-to-day life in Hotel City Plaza. Through the voiceover we learn details about the escape. Rida explains how her family entered Turkey by foot, how she experienced living in a camp arriving in Greece. She tells us about her nightmare, in which she remembers crossing the Medieval Sea and her fear of drowning. Despite everything she's been through, we get to know a self-confident, resourceful and imaginative personality with a lion's heart.