DON'T ASK FOR SUGAR - A TRUE STORY

The train brakes screech.

A young man punches a hole in the ceiling of an overcrowded Indian night train.

Seconds later, he jumps down from the upper sleeping berth.

The passengers stare at him.

Moments earlier, he had discovered that his backpack was gone.

Passport gone.

Money gone.

Everything gone.

Desperately, he searches among hundreds of passengers for the thief.

But this is only one stop on a journey that began years earlier in Germany.

Christoph grows up as the fifth of six brothers in Stuttgart.

From an early age, he feels drawn out into the world.

He wants to see it all.

Not someday.

Right now.

With little money and no real plan, he sets off for Asia.

What begins as an adventure changes his life forever.

In Thailand, he meets Suzanne from New Zealand.

For one week, the world seems to stand still.

Then their paths separate again.

She flies to Australia.

He returns to Germany.

Four months later, Christoph has earned enough money and follows her to Australia.

For the first time, life seems to be heading in the right direction.

Then they hear about a fortune teller known for her remarkably accurate predictions.

What they hear sounds strange at first.

Suzanne will soon be living far to the south.

For Christoph, fate has prepared a difficult test.

A few days later, Suzanne is offered the chance to fly to New Zealand for a fraction of the normal price.

She boards the plane.

Christoph is left behind.

And the test begins.

To take his mind off things, he travels around Australia, works on a dive boat, and survives on casual jobs.

Shortly before his visa expires, he learns that his brother Ralf is back in India.

Christoph immediately knows what that means.

Yet he boards a plane anyway.

India greets him with chaos, heat, and illness.