In political debates on refuge issues, those affected are often abstracted and their individual stories disappear behind numbers and vague collective terms - rarely or never get a say themselves. Seven films at the Human Rights Film Festival Berlin give the refugees a face and a voice. They are compassionate and personal stories about people who hope for a better life for themselves and their families.
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Fifty years ago, the entire Creole population of the Chagos Islands was displaced from their island homes by the British authorities. This secret operation took place in order to lease the largest island to the US Navy so that it could build a military base. Now, with the lease about to expire, Chagossian exiles struggle to recover their homeland. Sabrina Jean, the charismatic woman leading their fight in the UK, strives to keep the flame of hope alive so that her people can finally return home.
Refugees fleeing from neighbouring Syria have settled temporarily in Beqaa Valley, Lebanon, where they live and work under the supervision of a local administrator from whom they rent their land, earn their wages, and to whom they are indebted. Their steel shacks and tarpaulin tents provide scant relief from the ravages of seasonal floods and the whims of a forbidding natural environment. Director Abbas Fahdel shows the daily struggle for a dignified and autonomous communal life.
Since the beginning of the crisis, thousands of refugees have died crossing the Mediterranean and been buried in both marked and unmarked graves in Greece, their final resting places to remain a mystery. This documentary follows the story of Fereshta, an Afghan woman who survived a deadly shipwreck, as she, like thousands of others, searches for her lost loved ones.
The Rohingya in Myanmar are the most persecuted minority in the world. Why, in 2018, were their villages burned to the ground and hundreds of thousands driven from their homes, in a country effectively ruled by Noble Peace Prize winner Aung San Suu Kyi? Few conflicts are as complicated as the Rohingya crisis. EXILED explores the history of this Muslim minority in the Buddhist-majority nation of Myanmar. Burmese and Rohingya speak about the deep roots of violence and report on hate and ethnic cleansing.
FROM HERE is a hopeful story of Tania, Sonny, Miman, and Akim - artists and activists based in Berlin and New York whose lives and futures hang in the balance of immigration and integration debates. As the US and Germany grapple with racism, nationalism, and a fight against diversity, our protagonists move from their 20s into their 30s and face major turning points in their lives: fighting for citizenship, starting families, and finding room for creative expression.
In 2015, Raf’aa, a Syrian mother, was forced to make the ultimate sacrifice. With her husband Nazem in the hospital and bombs falling ever closer to their home, she fled Syria to find asylum for her family leaving Nazem and their two children, Ahmed and Hamoudi, behind. They had hoped to reunite in Europe within a few weeks, but by the time Nazem and the children left… it was too late. The political climate had changed and the borders to Europe were closed. Now, they are fighting for a shared future.
9-year-old Marwa is a lively, inquisitive child. She and her family live in the world’s largest camp for Syrian refugees in Jordan but hope to return home soon. Weeks turn into years and Marwa blossoms from a cheeky child into a teenager. Exclusively shot from children’s perspectives, this film captures the resilience and hopefulness of children displaced by conflict while raising crucial questions as to what lies in store for their generation.
