Musings in a Time of Crisis XXX

Some things that haven't been stopped by COVID-19:

wars, domestic violence, famine, pestilence, displacement—

our will to live.

~ Emi Mahmoud

Sudanese-American Slam Poet

UNHCR Goodwill Ambassador

. . . forced displacement nowadays is not only vastly

more widespread but is simply no longer a short-term

and temporary phenomenon. . . We need a fundamentally

new and more accepting attitude towards all who flee,

coupled with a much more determined drive to unlock

conflicts that go on for years and that are at the

root of such immense suffering.

~ Felippo Grandi, UN High Commissioner for Refugees*

_____________________________

One percent of humanity — one of every 97 people — is displaced.* Fewer and fewer are able to return home. In the midst of the pandemic, in countries or territories with acute food insecurity, in overcrowded, insanitary camps, subjects of violence and hate, refugees are among the world's most vulnerable people.

How often do you think of them?

And if you do think of them, do you wonder how they have hope?

*

This past Friday (July 19), I had the privilege of seeing, thanks to One Journey Festival and NoVA Friends of Refugees, an exclusive online screening of Refugee, a haunting 23-minute film by director-writer Brandt Andersen, who has made his own visits to refugee camps and championed a number of humanitarian initiatives. Earlier that day, the film, short-listed for an Oscar, had its premiere at UNHCR, the United Nations agency tasked with protecting the rights of and providing emergency support to refugees.

Film Poster

Dramatically relating the story of a pediatric surgeon who flees Syria with her young child, the film stars Yasmine Al Massri as the brilliant doctor "Amira" and Massa Daoud as her daughter "Rasha." It is riveting, profoundly moving, and hopeful, and reflects the very real circumstances of the world's forcibly dislocated refugee population, which numbers nearly 80 million, more than half of whom are under age 18.

Here's the film's trailer:

A discussion with Syrian American actor Jay Abdo, who plays "Papa Homsi," Amira's father in the film, followed the screening. Abdo, a celebrity in the Middle East, related his own difficulties in getting out of Syria after running afoul of the regime during Arab Spring, and of his struggles to create a life in America with his wife Fadia Afashe, a visual artist, writer, and human rights lawyer who also found herself in trouble with the government of Bashar al-Assad. (See The Guardian and Middle East Eye articles below.) Several things Abdo said echo the remarks of a forcibly displaced Iraqi family I know well: no refugee willingly leaves his or her country, and there is always hope of returning.

The COVID-19 crisis and other events have largely pushed off our front news pages the dangers to and maltreatment of refugees. It's so important that we not forget them, that we try to understand the conditions that brought them to our own country until the current administration began shutting them out, and that we be witness to their efforts to survive and to give back, which they do many times over in the communities where they are resettled.

If you have a chance to see Refugee, take it. It's a film you cannot forget easily.

______________________________

* "1 per cent of humanity displaced: UNHCR Global Trends Report," UNHRC, June 18, 2020

James Mottram, "From a refugee camp visit to an Oscar-shortlisted film: how one director took his experience to the screen," The National, January 5, 2020

Andrew Anthony, "Jay Abdo, Syrian actor: how I changed my name from Jihad to Jay and (eventually) conquered Hollywood," The Guardian, June 15, 2014

Frankie Taggart, "Syrian star turned pizza boy dreaming of Hollywood ending," Middle East Eye, January 3, 2017

Fadia Afashe, "For One Syrian Refugee, the Research Strikes Close to Home," RAND Blog, December 22, 2018

Virginia Isaad, "Syrian Artist Paints the Revolution," Los Angeles Magazine, November 29, 2012