In Velkomin heim (e. Welcome home), the actress María Thelma Smáradóttir weaves together her mother's story and her own.

María’s mother, Vala Rún, was born in a rice field in Thailand in the middle of the 20th century. She doesn't know when her birthday is, just that she was born sometime during the monsoon season. She never met her father, lost her mother at age six and was more or less on her own after that. In 2019, her daughter María Thelma takes the stage at the National Theatre of Iceland, the first woman of Asian origin to graduate as an actress from the Iceland University of the Arts.

In Velkomin heim María Thelma leads the audience on a journey through her mothers childhood and coming of age in Thailand and then moving and starting a family in Iceland. Her mother, Vala Rún, never felt like she belonged anywhere in Thailand. In Iceland she felt as if she had come home, and yet she didn't know anyone here and didn't speak the language. In the performance María generously intertwines her mothers story to her own experience of growing up between two cultures and faces the prejudices she has encountered as a second generation immigrant in Iceland.

What is it to belong somewhere? What is homeland?