Chinese dissident Ai Weiwei has turned his focus onto the global refugee crisis in a new documentary called “Human Flow” and explores how war, violence and climate change have made refugees of 65 million people.
Ai traveled with his camera crew to 23 countries over the course of a year, captured the desperation that has driven refugees from Syria, Afghanistan, Iraq, Eritrea, Palestine, Myanmar and elsewhere, risking their lives to escape violence.
“Human Flow” is essential viewing aAt a time when Europe and the U.S. are rewriting their rules for entry to the massive demand by people looking for safe haven
By embedding himself in the flow of refugee life while making his film, Ai developed an understanding of what it is like to flee violence and danger. Through “Human Flow,” he takes viewers into the heart-rending decisions as families weigh whether to stay or leave, the pain they feel from losing their loved ones in the choppy seas of the Mediterranean, and the frustration and rage that emerges from being blocked from reaching their destinations by barbed wire and armed police. Those who are fleeing are real people who bleed when they are injured, who cry when they are hurt, among whom are innocent children and tired elders, who are all being abandoned.
Ai traveled with his camera crew to 23 countries over the course of a year, captured the desperation that has driven refugees from Syria, Afghanistan, Iraq, Eritrea, Palestine, Myanmar and elsewhere, risking their lives to escape violence.
“Human Flow” is essential viewing aAt a time when Europe and the U.S. are rewriting their rules for entry to the massive demand by people looking for safe haven
By embedding himself in the flow of refugee life while making his film, Ai developed an understanding of what it is like to flee violence and danger. Through “Human Flow,” he takes viewers into the heart-rending decisions as families weigh whether to stay or leave, the pain they feel from losing their loved ones in the choppy seas of the Mediterranean, and the frustration and rage that emerges from being blocked from reaching their destinations by barbed wire and armed police. Those who are fleeing are real people who bleed when they are injured, who cry when they are hurt, among whom are innocent children and tired elders, who are all being abandoned.
In a harrowing scene, one middle-aged man takes the film crew to a makeshift graveyard, where multiple members of his family were buried after they drowned while trying to flee. He breaks down in tears as he sifts through the identity cards of the dead—all he has left of his kin.
Ai’s film puts faces to the numbers. “You see people really feel betrayed,” Ai says. “They think of Europe as a land that protects basic humanity.” The cruelty of European anti-refugee policies emerges as a central theme, as Ai explores the abandonment of lofty ideals of humanity on a continent that promised never again to turn away refugees after World War II (ironically, tens of thousands of European refugees fled the violence of World War II and found refuge in camps in the Middle East, including in Syria). It was, perhaps, easy to make pronouncements like “Never Again” in hindsight, but when the opportunity arises to prevent another human disaster, all the familiar political reasons re-emerge to ignore the suffering and misery.
The artist-turned-filmmaker has broken a number of barriers in his film by focusing on the humanity of tens of millions of people that the world would rather forget about. But he has also broken some rules of filmmaking. There are few talking heads in the film and little discussion of politics and policy. News headlines from media outlets scroll along the bottom of the screen, filling in the blanks in terse text.
Learn more online at www.humanflow.com.
Taken from here - https://www.truthdig.com/articles/ai-weiweis-harrowing-film-refugee-crisis-must-see/
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