Bangkok – The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) presents the 7th Refugee Film Festival in Bangkok. The Festival features award-winning, internationally renowned films which give a voice to the seldom-heard stories of refugees who have been forced to flee their homes due to conflict and persecution.
On 7 December, the festival’s opening night, UNHCR welcomes the diplomatic community and media to view Thailand’s premiere of Ai Weiwei’s “Human Flow”, thanks to Sahamongkolfilm International. “Human Flow” gives a powerful visual journey of mass human displacement. The documentary elucidates both the staggering scale of the refugee crisis and its profoundly personal human impact.
“The number of people displaced globally has reached more than 65 million this year” remarked Pia Paguio, UNHCR Senior Protection Officer, at the festival’s opening night. “This year, all six films that will be screened show the stories of the people behind this staggering number, and that refugees are just like you and me, except that they have been forced to flee their homes.”
Following the opening, the festival line up shows a further five outstanding films:
• “Return To Homs” was filmed over three years, exploring the lives of two young men and how war-torn Syria impacted them and other disaffected youths forever;
• “After Spring” is a Syrian documentary following two displaced families and sharing their unforgettable insights into Syria’s largest refugee camp;
• “The Zookeeper’s Wife” is an uplifting fictionalized tale based on a true story of triumph over adversity against the backdrop of World War II Poland;
• “Refugee – The Eritrean Exodus” is a Sundance Film Festival winner and a US documentary, which tracks a traveler as he follows the path of Eritrean refugees through Ethiopia into Israel, while discovering the resilience of the people and broadcasting the never-before-documented Afar region; and
• “Cast from the Storm” is an Australian documentary which tells a heartwarming story of a group of teenage refugees who share their incredible experiences through an after-school theatre group following their resettlement in Australia.
The 7th Refugee Film Festival is open to the public from 8-10 December at Paragon Cineplex. Admission is free of charge and can be booked via UNHCR’s Facebook page / UNHCR Thailand.
