5 March 2018

MY NEW DOC ON REFUGEE ENTREPRENEURS

Refugees have had ghastly press recently and this film will do little to change that. Not that it's a propaganda exercise but still, I do believe that every refugee has talent and skills that can enable them to thrive in Europe, and it's important to talk about this side of the story as well.

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In this film, we meet three refugees (or newcomers, as they call them in Germany) who took matters in their own hands and started their own business instead of queuing up for jobs or handouts. To be fair, that is not all correct. Jobs and welfare are important instruments and even our very spirited characters relied on them at some point in their journey. But in this new land of wealthy consumers, free online resources and unrelenting meritocracy these newcomers have spotted new opportunities and they want to help their peers to find their place too. 

Mind you, Syrians are, on average, much more entrepreneurial than Germans for example. In Europe though, they face daunting odds: languages they don't speak, people they don't know and a political context that is often adverse. 

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In this film, you will see three people who didn't tune down their dreams when faced with those challenges. They decided that the language could be learned, people could become friends and the political context could be changed.

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I have already filmed and edited two of the three stories and both individuals are amazing people. It's ridiculous how we Europeans have overlooked the intelligentsia of Middle Eastern countries so far. If it weren't too perverse to talk about the 'upsides' of a devastating civil war, we could say that at least, we got to know some inspiring Syrians in the midst of all this madness. 

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I hope to complete the film in April and send it off to festivals. After the festivals, the full film will be available here. The running time will be around 18 minutes. And it will be awesome (inshallah). Watch this space, folks.

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