A moving experience for refugees

OneWorld

A moving experience for refugees

By Daniel Nelson

Two refugee families are relocated to Sheffield, a city so alien to their lives in Burma and then 20 years in a refugee camp in Thailand that they might as well be Moving to Mars.

Matt Whitecross’ film follows them from the last weeks in the camp to their new home in Britain, and it’s fascinating viewing.

People’s reactions to new experiences, however small, are always interesting: the excitement of getting on and off an escalator, the laughter triggered by finding rice rock-hard after it has inadvertently been left in a freezer; the confusion of dealing with burglar alarms and other unaccustomed devices. The families take it all in their stride, grateful for a chance to make a new life.

But there’s another, more personal side to their struggle. There are tears and quiet recriminations as the families drift apart; civil engineer Thaw Htoo finds his experience negated and his authority crumbling as his good-looking, soccer-playing son falls in with British teenagers; unable to find work, the illiterate farmer Jo Kae is stuck at home with nothing to do.

With quiet determination the wives negotiate every obstacle; the children respond resiliently to difficulties at school (one is bullied but, initially, does not speak English well enough to tell her teacher), their personalities taking shape in front of your eyes from a combination of deep-seated characteristics and new conditions. The hopes of the youngsters look realisable – though much will depend on the particular peer group with whom they choose to identify. But Thaw Htoo’s hopes of resuming his civil engineering career look remote, and frustration and resentment seem gradually to infect him as the film progresses.

The camera roams freely, and the families are unaffectedly honest (to the point where you wonder whether they realised the potential impact of opening up their homes and thoughts to a filmmaker.) It’s a sort of soap opera, except that Whitecross does not dwell on or exploit the problems and conflicts. He shows, without underlining.

Another virtue of this quiet, subtle film is that it does not focus on poverty and powerlessness, even in the (perhaps slightly overlong) opening section of life in the camp. The focus is on the families as people, who they are and how they interact, not as refugees or as symbols.

* Next screening: 4 December, Riverside Studios, Crisp Road, W6. Info: 8237 1111/ Riverside/