What happens when your future depends on telling your own life story? Four rejected asylum seekers relive the hearing on their reasons for fleeing their homelands, thus shedding light on the core of the asylum procedure. Those who succeed in recounting the personal danger in their home country ‘credibly and without contradiction’ have a better chance of receiving asylum. Will the interviewees be able to describe their memories of traumatic experiences in such a way that they meet the official criteria this time? A simple swapping of roles reverses the balance of power for once, with SEM interviewers answering the questions of the asylum seekers. In this way, The Hearing not only provides insight into the crucial yet sensitive hearings process, but also questions the asylum procedure itself. 

How is it decided in Switzerland who is allowed to stay? Who is recognized as a refugee? The film gets to the bottom of these questions. In the current practice of asylum hearings, there is no guarantee that asylum seekers have a real chance of being heard. Trauma, class and origin-specific differences, language barriers and many other challenges can make a "credible and non-contradictory" narrative impossible as required by asylum legislation. Furthermore, politically motivated restrictions lead to unacceptable negative asylum decisions. The film questions the hearings and decisions of the asylum authorities and shows that there is a need for action. The implementation of the protection concept of the Geneva Refugee Convention is endangered on various levels. This must not be allowed to happen.