With big eyes eight-year-old Tanans looks around. The new school year has just begun. That is exciting for all pupils, but especially for Tanans. In the cheerful liveliness of the classroom Tanans does not recognize a single word. The shouts, the words and sentences in Dutch are unfamiliar noises to him. Tanans has only been in the Netherlands for a few weeks. He does not speak the language, understands nothing of the local customs and has not made any friends yet. Tanans is Congolese, but he grew up in a refugee welcome zone in Uganda. Together with his family he has come to the Netherlands as an ‘invited refugee’. In ‘New’ we follow Tanans on his journey of discovery. For the first time he lives in a beautiful house, tries to find his balance on a bike, speaks Dutch. But above all, he tries to make sense of this strange, new world. This is often funny and amusing, and very exciting. For how do you make friends if you don’t speak the same language?
