T/C | Shot Description | Text |
00.02.07
00.02.25 |
Title: "Going Nowhere - A Story of Iraqi Refugees"
Driving inside car, shot of statutes, shot inside kitchen |
Z (V/O): A rainy Thursday afternoon in Damascus. We drive through the narrow streets of Jaramana and park outside a church. Every other day, the nuns at this church cook enough food for 600 people, and Iraqi refugees (Christian) arrive with their pots and pans to collect a hot meal...
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00.03.02
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| Z: what have you cooked today?
Nun2: pea stew and rice... Z: did you cook it yourself? Nun2: (shrugs and points to Nun1) she did...
Z: and does everyone eat here? Nun1: no - they bring their pots and pans, fill up with food and take it home... and all the family eat together...
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0.03.25
00.03.54
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| Z (V/O): The door to the kitchen opens ... I didn't expect this to be so difficult. The ‘iraqi refugees in damascus' were no longer a distant troubled people - they were very real and their misery hung in the air...
They are embarrassed that I am filming, they ask me to stop, not to film them - they're proud, not happy to be filmed in this poor deprived state ... I try to film only hands, occasionally stealing a shot of an eye ... but I start to feel embarrassed as well - embarrassed that I am pointing a camera at them during this, their moment of utter sadness and despair.
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00.04.08
00.04.10
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| Z (V/O): One of the nuns keeps careful record of the numbers...
NUN: we have 34 Syrian families... as for Iraqis, we have 59 families. For instance today, 600 people are being fed - those who come here take food for their entire families and children. So today is Thursday, we'll do this again on Saturday then on Tuesday, so in total we are feeding 1600 people every week. |
00.04.32 | Queue for food... Mona joins the queue Various shots of Mona, bags of pots and containers...
Mona gets food
| Z (V/O): One of the women queuing for her allocated portion of pea stew and rice was Mona...
I sat with Mona in the church courtyard to get her story on tape... before we could start, others joined us and started pouring their hearts out ...
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00.04.50
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| Old Man: they kidnapped my son. We had a computer shop, at 10.30 we were closing, they kidnapped him from the street.
OM: Then they came after my other son. He worked with the Americans as a driver.
Z: why did he work with the Americans?
OM: he was a driver.
Z: didn't they give him any protection since he worked with them? OM: they can't protect anyone - they are afraid themselves
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00.05.10
00.05.32
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Wet floor | F: just a month ago, when I was here in Syria, my sister who's a nun called me and said they've kidnapped our brother. they told her to go get money from the Pope in the Vatican... what has my sister got to do with the Pope, how would she ever be able to ask him for money???
Then they let him go; they threw him naked outside the church, with a sign around his neck saying ‘this is for the Pope of the Vatican'...
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00.05.43 |
Woman in red stripe shirt |
NID: my husband used to sell alcohol, but he had to stop. Z: why did he stop? NID: he was afraid, he got threatened. Then a gang attacked our house.
Z: how do they know who is selling alcohol... NID: they know everything - they're from the neighbourhood...
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00.06.02 | Woman in blue-patterned top | N: the first time they came into our house they were dressed in police uniforms. The next time their faces were covered and they were wearing black.
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00.06.09 | Woman in red stripe shirt | NID: we woke up to the sound of the explosion, there was smoke everywhere, the house was destroyed.
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00.06.14 | Woman in black top with white patterns | F: I told the UN all this - and they've still not given me an appointment. They've just taken down all our details....
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00.06.21 | Old man | OM: We applied for immigration to Australia, but we were refused. Refusal after refusal after refusal. Six times we were refused.
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00.06.51 | Man walking with push-chair | Eventually I got to hear Mona's story.
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00.07.01 | Mona surrounded by children | Mona: They kidnapped my daughter. They told him he is an infidel, because he paints portraits.
Z: what happened then? M: they kept her for a week. They wanted $10000, and we were barely making a living...
We took some money from the church, and my sisters lent me some money - we had nothing at all. They took $5000 in the end. When I got my daughter back, I gathered all our belonging, with the small savings we had, and we fled ... all because my husband is a painter...
Z: what happened to her for when they kept her for a week? M: she was deeply disturbed.... They would call us and would hear her screaming and crying in the background...
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00.07.36 | Man walking with bicycle | Z (V/O): Their lives in Baghdad haven't always been this difficult - Salah used to be a lecturer at the Academy of Fine Arts... Mona had a degree in economics and taught at a college.
I left the church with Mona and Salah to visit the apartment they are living in.
I wanted to see Salah's paintings and meet Mona's mum...
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00.07.55 | Mona's mom, shots inside the flat, shot of Jesus painting | Z (V/O): The apartment a miserable place.. Even the large beautiful painting of Jesus that Salah has made and put up in the living room brings little cheer.
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00.08.09 | Following mona to the bedroom Points out the damp, then where the babies sleep... she is explaining how the walls are so damp... shows the beds, dalia gets poked by the metal, got the metal from the roof... neighbours gave her mattresses.
| Z (V/O): Mona shows me into the bedroom where she sleeps with the kids. Salah sleeps on the sofa. She shows me the damp that she scrubs by hand every morning - but still the smell is overpowering.
The twins sleep in the corners on the floor.
She & Dalia sleep on rusted beds they salvaged from the roof...
Z: and how long have you been like this?
M: just over a year... we used to have the best furniture... (starts to cry)
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00.08.50 | Salah | Z: how many rooms? S: there's this room we're in now, and a small one back there. And there's another room where my mother-in-law and her 2 daughters sleep.
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| G: at least we have a roof over our heads my dear... we're not sleeping on the streets... thank god...
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00.09.09 |
Wedding day picture | Z (V/O): I was moved to see that in the middle of all this, they have made an effort to pay a little tribute to the memory of their old lives and of Baghdad - a picture of a much happier Salah and Mona on their wedding day hangs on the wall.
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00.09.19
00.09.25
00.09.40 | Salah's paints and easel
Salah
Children playing | Z (V/O): Salah's easel and paints sit untouched, almost a ghost from a previous life...
Z: did you think in 2003 that you would be able to go back to teaching and develop more?
S: yes, for sure... and I tried to apply a number of times, but I guess too many people applies, and corruption came into the picture, so it was about who you know...
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00.09.48 | Daughter | M: I went to the government school to register Dalia but they said they're not taking any more Iraqis - it's a new law. So they wouldn't take her... the rest are very expensive... not only is Dalia depressed she can't go to school... it's so hard...
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00.10.03 | Close shots of Salah | Z (V/O): Then Salah described how he hangs his hope on the United Nations Refugee Agency - the UNHCR...
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00.10.10
00.10.32
00.10.39
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Son playing
Mona and Salah
| S: we had our faith in the conference that just happened in Geneva... we had hope they would find us a solution or at least give us some hope... some light at the end of the tunnel... but all the resolutions they made were vague and unclear and indirect... M: nothing came out of it...
Z: the solution isn't to go back to Baghdad?
M: no way... S: at this point in time, that's impossible. M: even if things are fine I wouldn't go back...
G: since the 80s we haven't known any peace of mind... the war with Iraq, the war with Kuwait... rockets raining on our heads all the time... Z: so you wouldn't go back to Baghdad?
G: I'd never go back to Baghdad...
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00.10.54 | Mona's mom | G: And this is my life. All our lives are fear and worry, and bombs and explosions.
Wherever we go we find bombs... and now we add to that kidnap and slaughter...
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00.11.07 | Boy playing, Mona with children | M: those who have been through death threats, kidnappings, seen their families being killed, seen bodies flying in the air after a bomb, hands and parts of bodies everywhere... how can they go back? That's why we're asking for a solution and saying they should distribute the refugees to other countries - our minds need to start afresh and forget these horrific images... to be able to raise our children properly... its all for the children - as for us, our lives are over. I don't' think Salah and I will be able to life normally or enjoy our lives any more - we can only provide a better life for our children. We want them to go to school... to live...
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00.11.46 | Driving away | I leave with this image in my mind - an image of a lost life, a lost youth, a lost city, a lost future ...
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