My Escape

Documentary

60 min.

The refugee crisis: told by the children escaping on their own.

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We follow Ghaith, a 16-year-old Syrian boy. His hometown was razed to the ground in vicious fighting between ISIS and Kurdish Forces. Now we follow his attempts to escape Turkey as he tries to negotiate with several different human smuggling gangs – he does not have enough money to pay for the crossing to Greece, and as he haggles and begs relatives to help him, he sees opportunity after opportunity pass him by. The film focuses on the largest refugee crisis since the World War II – through the eyes of two boys, Ghaith and Abdul, out of the many thousands of children who are fleeing alone. Their journey to Europe is told from their point of view, and they have recorded some of it themselves with their own mobile cameras. Life in Europe is not like the two boys imagined. We see how Ghaith is missing his family, how the paperwork and bureaucracy in both Germany and Sweden takes its toll on both the boys. We hear Abduls reflection on the recent development in Sweden where immigration laws are being tightened and the public is setting asylum centers on fire. It is a world away from news hosts in trouble spots – simply told as honestly as possible by the children themselves.

  • Director

    Henrik Grunnet & Feras Fayyad

  • Producer

    Gitte Tækker

  • Produced by

    Heartland for DR TV

  • Format

    60 mins.

  • Release

    2016