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| Refugee documentaries offer window into banality, brutality and hope | Refugee documentaries offer window into banality, brutality and hope |
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| A movie shot on mobile phone on Manus Island and another following asylum seekers stranded in Indonesia shown at Australian film festivals | |
| Ben Doherty | |
| Mon 12 Jun 2017 19.00 BST | |
| Last modified on Mon 12 Jun 2017 19.02 BST | |
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| The experience of refugees seeking sanctuary in Australia by boat – and the human impact of Australia’s border policies – are the focus of two new documentaries at film festivals across Australia this week. | The experience of refugees seeking sanctuary in Australia by boat – and the human impact of Australia’s border policies – are the focus of two new documentaries at film festivals across Australia this week. |
| Chauka, Please Tell Us The Time is the collaborative work of the Manus Island refugee and Iranian journalist Behrouz Boochani and the Dutch-Iranian film-maker Arash Kamali Sarvestani. The film offers a rare glimpse into the banality and brutality of life inside Australia’s secretive offshore detention regime. | Chauka, Please Tell Us The Time is the collaborative work of the Manus Island refugee and Iranian journalist Behrouz Boochani and the Dutch-Iranian film-maker Arash Kamali Sarvestani. The film offers a rare glimpse into the banality and brutality of life inside Australia’s secretive offshore detention regime. |
| The documentary was filmed inside the Manus detention centre over the course of months, shot entirely on a mobile phone kept hidden from authorities by Boochani. The pair worked together by distance: Boochani filming short clips and sending them via WhatsApp – and Manus’s sclerotic internet – to Sarvestani, who built the narrative of Chauka piece-by-piece. | The documentary was filmed inside the Manus detention centre over the course of months, shot entirely on a mobile phone kept hidden from authorities by Boochani. The pair worked together by distance: Boochani filming short clips and sending them via WhatsApp – and Manus’s sclerotic internet – to Sarvestani, who built the narrative of Chauka piece-by-piece. |
| There is little dialogue for much of the documentary, the stark, simple images are left to carry the story. Repeatedly, Boochani’s camera phone will focus on a symbol of freedom – a beach scene, a butterfly, a kitten – only to pull back to reveal the view is one from behind the wire of a three-metre-high steel security fence. | There is little dialogue for much of the documentary, the stark, simple images are left to carry the story. Repeatedly, Boochani’s camera phone will focus on a symbol of freedom – a beach scene, a butterfly, a kitten – only to pull back to reveal the view is one from behind the wire of a three-metre-high steel security fence. |
| Chauka is the name of a bird indigenous to Manus Island. It was also the name of a notorious secret solitary confinement wing of the Manus detention centre where “non-compliant” refugees, including Boochani, were taken. | Chauka is the name of a bird indigenous to Manus Island. It was also the name of a notorious secret solitary confinement wing of the Manus detention centre where “non-compliant” refugees, including Boochani, were taken. |
| The Chauka birds regularly sound their distinctive call throughout the day on Manus – they can be heard repeatedly on the film – and are regarded as unofficial keepers of time by Manusians. But time, as this film shows, has little meaning for 900 men who have been held there in indefinite detention for nearly four years, with no clear ending to their confinement. | The Chauka birds regularly sound their distinctive call throughout the day on Manus – they can be heard repeatedly on the film – and are regarded as unofficial keepers of time by Manusians. But time, as this film shows, has little meaning for 900 men who have been held there in indefinite detention for nearly four years, with no clear ending to their confinement. |
| The Staging Post follows Muzafar Ali and Khadim Dai, two Afghan Hazara refugees stranded in Indonesia after Australia’s Operation Sovereign Borders “stopped the boats” and began forcibly returning asylum seeker vessels to Indonesia. It is screening in Sydney and Melbourne as part of the Refugee film festival. | The Staging Post follows Muzafar Ali and Khadim Dai, two Afghan Hazara refugees stranded in Indonesia after Australia’s Operation Sovereign Borders “stopped the boats” and began forcibly returning asylum seeker vessels to Indonesia. It is screening in Sydney and Melbourne as part of the Refugee film festival. |
| Ali, a former UN worker in Afghanistan, and Dai, once a national karate champion, fled persecution at the hands of the Taliban but found themselves stuck in Cisarua, outside Jakarta, unable to flee further. | Ali, a former UN worker in Afghanistan, and Dai, once a national karate champion, fled persecution at the hands of the Taliban but found themselves stuck in Cisarua, outside Jakarta, unable to flee further. |
| Indonesia is not a party to the refugees convention, so refugees stranded there live an insecure and penurious half-life at the margins of their new community – unable to work, study or build a life, and ever at risk of being arrested and detained. | Indonesia is not a party to the refugees convention, so refugees stranded there live an insecure and penurious half-life at the margins of their new community – unable to work, study or build a life, and ever at risk of being arrested and detained. |
| But amid ongoing concern about what, if anything will come of their futures, The Staging Post is a story of hope. | But amid ongoing concern about what, if anything will come of their futures, The Staging Post is a story of hope. |
| Stranded, and waiting – potentially for decades – for a chance at resettlement that may never come, Ali and Dai build a community of similarly stranded refugees, and opened the Cisarua refugee learning centre for the children who would otherwise be unable to get an education. | Stranded, and waiting – potentially for decades – for a chance at resettlement that may never come, Ali and Dai build a community of similarly stranded refugees, and opened the Cisarua refugee learning centre for the children who would otherwise be unable to get an education. |
| Chauka, Please Tell Us the Time screens in Sydney, at Event Cinemas in George Street, on 15 June at 8pm as part of the Sydney film festival. It will also screen in Melbourne at Federation Square on 16, 17 and 18 June. The Refugee film festival is being held in Sydney (17-18 June) and Melbourne (18-24 June). The Staging Post screens at the NSW State Library, Saturday 17 June at 2pm, and at Nova Cinemas, Carlton, on Sunday, June 18, at 6pm | Chauka, Please Tell Us the Time screens in Sydney, at Event Cinemas in George Street, on 15 June at 8pm as part of the Sydney film festival. It will also screen in Melbourne at Federation Square on 16, 17 and 18 June. The Refugee film festival is being held in Sydney (17-18 June) and Melbourne (18-24 June). The Staging Post screens at the NSW State Library, Saturday 17 June at 2pm, and at Nova Cinemas, Carlton, on Sunday, June 18, at 6pm |
| Refugees | |
| Australian immigration and asylum | |
| Manus Island | |
| Migration | |
| Papua New Guinea | |
| Indonesia | |
| news | |
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