Alex Bahíyyih Wain’s In the Clouds – through the eyes of a six year old
The conversation moved between craft, courage and the urgent need to tell refugee stories without flattening them into statistics or slogans. What emerged was a shared belief in the power of short-form filmmaking to open a human doorway: through grief, humour, contradiction, anger, tenderness and the everyday details that make a story reach beyond of the echo chamber.
Alex Bahíyyih Wain:
I really care about refugees. I really care about refugee children, and making a short film was a way that I could get that message across. What divides us is politics. What unites us is our shared humanity.
An example I have, which happened recently, was at another screening of my film. A friend of mine brought along his mother-in-law, and he’d told me a number of times that she has very strong views against immigration, especially around small boats.
I was surprised that he brought her along, and I was curious. I thought, is my film going to make her angry? Is she going to have some reaction to it that’s going to be quite unpleasant?
So I watched her watching the film, and she began to cry, real tears. I hadn’t actually seen someone cry this much at a screening of my film.
And I realised she wasn’t reacting to a political message. She was reacting to a human experience. And that, I think, shows the power of storytelling. You can reach people you wouldn’t imagine reaching.
Alex Wain’s In the Clouds – set in an English estate
Olly Ginelli:
The result of that was that you get straight into it with the characters. You see this young lad speaking with loads of bravado, and I try to write from what I know because that was kind of me when I was younger.
When you’re in that situation, you want your big brother to be confident. He’s telling you, “Look, everything’s going to be all right.” I hoped he would come across as a character who could sell shoes to a snake. Cocky. Whatever he says, you go along with it.
But then, over the course of the film, you see that confidence fade away as part of him growing as a man and asking whether optimism or pessimism is the best mindset in that situation.
Hopefully, that gives it a coming-of-age element. When you’re in those sorts of situations, you have to grow up really quickly.
As some people know, this was inspired by my time volunteering in refugee camps. The kids there are so mature, shockingly mature. So it was inspired by that. I tried to hook people in with that big brother feeling, and then give them a fast-forward character arc.
Olly Ginelli’s The Long Spring – read more about Olly’s experience here
Ayman Alhussein (co-writer with Max Fisher on Rule Britannia):
Authenticity is really important, not just in the general picture, but in the small details: the human things we can all connect with. That’s generally what’s missing everywhere.
Any person would connect more with those smaller things than with the big picture – the numbers, or anything else.
Yellow – relatable and resonant
Elham Ehsas:
I really agree. I feel like it’s always the smaller moments that really get to you. You can see the human condition between two people talking in a café.
That was one of the inspirations behind Yellow. A lot of the funniest people I know are my Afghan aunties and uncles back home. They’re so funny. Life goes on. Life finds a way wherever you live.
So I was thinking, how do I make the situation of an Afghan woman going shopping relatable, but also resonant? That was the balance.
I feel like the closest distance between two people is usually humour. It connects us. It’s the best bridge. It’s hard to do in a way that resonates, but also doesn’t shy away from the bigger topics. That’s the challenge.
Elham Ehsas wrote, directed and acted in his film Yellow
Lemn Sissay:
Humour allows you to pivot very quickly from humour to darkness. In fact, darkness is more dark next to light, so we must show the light to see the darkness.
Max Fisher:
The world is so complex now, and it’s not for us to say we have the answers. It’s about asking questions and making people think about themselves, their peers, and also people they might think of as their enemies.
Just because someone doesn’t share your politics doesn’t mean they’re racist or bad.
Ayman Alhussein:
The problem we’re struggling with now is that people are numb to numbers and statistics. We see them all the time on the news. We don’t react anymore, and that’s sad.
Sadly, I’m not supposed to be political, but I’m going to be, there are a lot of people talking about refugees and migrants, but not many people talking with refugees and migrants, or letting them tell their stories. We’ve got a one-way system against refugees, and I don’t see many refugees talking, or many people talking with refugees.
In the Clouds
Alex Bahíyyih Wain:
When we talk about the echo chamber, we actually don’t know who’s listening, because we don’t really know what people are thinking.
When we talk about sharing our art with people and the echo chamber, once it’s out there, it’s out there. You don’t know.
That’s what’s amazing about art. That’s the power of art, poetry, music and storytelling. We’re touching people’s hearts and moving people’s minds, and we don’t have control over that.
Olly Ginelli:
In terms of what The Long Spring is trying to get across: the refugee crisis is a big topic of conversation, but human trafficking never gets mentioned.
So if you enter into a conversation with someone who says, “Why are they coming here for work?” – a lot of them are enslaved, and no one even talks about that.
Max Fisher’s Rule Britannia – read our interview with Max here
Max Fisher:
I think the theme of Refugee Week is courage, right? All of these films engage with that in different ways.
There is this idea that there’s courage in standing up for your country, and this frankly ridiculous idea that it’s brave to put other people down because they’re different from you.
But actually, I think there is a more powerful form of courage, which is to accept people who are different to you, welcome them into your community and your society, and offer the help you would want offered to you if you were in that position.
Ayman Alhussein:
Speaking of courage, we need to just keep talking. The most courageous thing is to tell the stories and keep talking.
Statistics can be boring, but also helpful. But the stories – I think art at the moment is the only bridge we have, in all forms of art, because the news is not telling the whole story and politicians unfortunately are not either.
So yes: tell the stories.
Rule Britannia
