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Exodus: Our Journey to Europe

When 75 people are given camera phones to document their asylum to Europe, the result is a raw, compelling documentary.

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Imagine if everyone who fled Syria in 2015 was given a camera phone to document their staggering journey…

It may not tally the 1 million migrants who made the journey, but nevertheless this doco did give 75 cameras to people as they left their homeland in search of a better life. The result is an extraordinary capsule of a human tragedy, Exodus: Our Journey to Europe.

A massive 800,000 people travelled through Turkey that year, leaving behind a civil war that obliterated Syria. Thousands fled through cities like Izmir, in the hope of not just a brighter future, but their very survival.

Families like that of 11 year old Isra’a who we find on the streets after 3 months, while her father Tarek sells cigarettes without a work permit. In Syria he owned a restaurant -now he scrapes together money to pay people smugglers to help him cross the Mediterranean to Greece.

“I wanted to save my family,” he tells us.

A bright and intelligent Isra’a does what she can to contribute to the family’s survival, dodging Turkish police. But the world-famous photo of dead 3 yr old boy Aylan, washed up on a beach in Kos, is deterring him. Isra’a’s mother is determined to make the crossing and Isra’a is worried the family unit is splintering. Do they travel now via dinghy or keep waiting for a yacht?

“This is the hardest test of my life,” admits Tarek.

When he eventually pays 12,000 euros, he risks everything for a dinghy crowded with 35 people. Water begins to seep into their tiny vessel between Turkey and Greece and panic sets in. This is distressing vision as you realise you are watching the real deal, not a re-enactment -and that the camera operator keeps filming while their own mortality hangs in the balance.

“Die together or live together…”

 

Hassan was an English Teacher in Syria, now he finds himself on the coast of Greece with nothing more than his clothes and phone, but there is no organised structure to deal with the mass migration.

“I never slept on the side of the road… I never even went camping,” he tells us. “I was shocked. I thought this is Europe. I thought it would be different.”

He has to wait 20 days for papers from the Greek police to travel to Athens on a ferry. It’s another 1390 miles to reach Germany.

English student Ahmad has left his family behind in Syria as he makes the journey to England, determined to bring his family thereafter. It’s a painful journey alone, but he has his reasons. “I can’t imagine watching my daughter dying in front of me,” he explains. An Oxford Dictionary is his best friend as he makes the trek.

Despite such jeopardy and a leap into the unknown, some children prove to be remarkably resilient int he face of adversity.

“In Syria bombs were dropping on us… how can we be scared of waves?” they ask.

It’s this kind of personal perspective that makes this so compelling. If Documentaries are all about access, then few deliver such a raw, embedded experience as this. Three episodes could be a challenge for even the most empathetic viewer, but I feel watching and learning is the least I can do to honour this human tragedy and the people who embarked upon it.

As one man puts it so eloquently, “Everyone has a story. A long story.”

Exodus: Our Journey to Europe premieres 9:30pm Tuesday November 22 on SBS.

 

 

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