The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees estimates that there are 65 million refugees in the world displaced from their countries due to genocide, government oppression, war, and other factors. Filmmaker Anne Poiret’s documentary examines the plight of refugees, who become what one interviewee calls "surplus" people, logistically invisible because they are trapped for years in camps outside of actual communities, with no money, no opportunity to work, and held back by a complex tangle of rules imposed by competing non-government organizations. Poiret casts her net wide to cover different aspects of the humanitarian crisis tucked away in numerous countries, tracking the movements of one refugee family whose optimism ebbs in a dreadful, unsanitary camp. There are also scenes of camp residents trying to build a necessary latrine and being denied because the space is needed for more incoming refugees. Poiret makes it clear here that there can be no lasting solutions until there is greater cooperation between the international powers involved. Issuing a powerful wake-up call about a global crisis situation, this is recommended. Aud: C, P. (T. Keogh)
Welcome to Refugeestan
(2016) 72 min. DVD: $390. Icarus Films. PPR. Closed captioned. Volume 33, Issue 4
Welcome to Refugeestan
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