Not a decision taken lightly

This evening I went to see the documentary Human Flow, directed by Ai Weiwei. He’s a famous Chinese dissident artist, though I think the word “dissident” is way too mild. Let’s add humanitarian, truth teller, and resistance leader. I saw the movie mostly because of Ai Weiwei’s reputation (and I saw some of his art in Grand Rapids a few months ago). The subject of the movie is the movement of refugees. They are escaping war, famine, and other nasty and deadly conditions, or perhaps simply seeking a better life.

The story starts with Syrians crossing to Greece. We watch the boats arrive and government officials begin to process the passengers. We see them start to walk to other countries in Europe, then get stopped at the Macedonia border. The EU makes an agreement with Turkey to take back the refugees and they settle into camps in Turkey. But the movie doesn’t stop there. Jordan also houses Syrians. The Rohinga of Myanmar tell their story. Afghanis who have spent 30-40 years in camps in Pakistan are invited home to help rebuild – though their original village can’t take them back and they end up in city slums. There are windy camps in Kenya with refugees from South Sudan and Eritrea. The oldest camps are in the West Bank. The biggest camp is Gaza. There are rather nice camps (even indoors) in Tempelhof Airport in Berlin. In Calais thousands try to catch a ride to Britain and the French destroy their camp. There may not be camps, but there are refugees along the US-Mexico border.

The refugees tell their stories, such as the man who shows us the 17 identity cards he has for members of his family, then tearfully tells us five didn’t make it. A few tell their stories with their back to the camera. Sometimes all we need is the expression on faces.

People from various refugee agencies describe what they are doing and what the refugees are facing. One says that as long as there is inequality there will be refugees, and the wider the inequality becomes the more refugees there will be.

In most camps in most countries things are set up so that the refugees cannot better themselves, cannot escape the horrors of camp life. The intent is the refugees will eventually go home, though the average stay in a camp is 26 years.

Along the way we are told refugees are serious in their trek. Leaving one’s home is not a decision taken lightly. Even so, 34,000 people a day make that choice to flee persecution.

The closing credits lists 15 camps seen in the film. I could only count them as the credits scrolled. The credits lists the names of everyone featured in the film – and the list is long. I saw this list (and the movie as a whole) as a very humanizing thing for the director to do.