Dorothea, a German woman working for the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, is on assignment in a troubled Arab region looking for potential female college students among local refugees who are qualified to enter universities in Europe. Though she stays at an upscale hotel and spends her days meeting with rich or high-ranking officials to solicit their financial support, poverty surrounds her. While enjoying her life of luxury, she meets a young man, Alec. Their relationship quickly blossoms and threatens to jeopardize her position. The Weather Inside takes a cynical look at the politics and corruption surrounding international humanitarian organizations, reflecting on the dark tension between cavalier Europeans and the supposedly inferior local Arabs. In this respect, Alec, who is half-Arab and half-German, is quite symbolic, hovering, as he does, around a white Western woman and looking for a chance to turn his life around. A film that gestures toward questions about the role and meaning that aid programs have on societies today. (RHEE Soue-won)