Guest blogger @SanazRaji previews the Leeds premiere of Tina Gharavi’s debut feature film on Iranian refugees will be screened during Refugee Week at the Hyde Park Picture House
Newcastle-based filmmaker, Tina Gharavi will be premiering her first feature length film, I Am Nasrine this Friday, 22nd of June from 6:30-8:30pm at the Hyde Park Picture House. I Am Nasrine is set before and during the tragic and world changing events of September 11th. The film takes place in Tehran, where 16 year-old Nasrine, played by Micsha Sadeghi, is picked up by the police for riding in a motorcycle with her boyfriend. This act is a major infraction in Iran, governed under Islamic law, which stipulates that unmarried women and men should not fraternize together. While incarcerated, a police interrogator sexually assaults Nasrine. She does not disclose the assault to her family. Nevertheless, after a series of confrontations with the police, her anxious father decides to send Nasrine and her older brother Ali, played by Shiraz Haq, to the UK for a better life.
Nasrine and Ali arrive to Newcastle where they seek asylum. In order to survive, Ali finds black market work, first at a carwash and eventually in a pizza takeaway. Nasrine, in turn, attends school and meets fellow classmate Nicole, a member of the travellers community. They quickly bound and their friendship blossoms.
While Nasrine relishes the newfound freedom to explore her own identity, Ali, however, is frustrated and resentful at being forced into a bewildering situation. At the same time, Ali continues to deny his burgeoning Queer desires for men. Unfortunately, things spiral further out of control for Nasrine and Ali when an unimaginable tragedy occurs. Nasrine must find the courage to accept what fate has dealt her. In doing so she discovers that the end of her journey is really just the beginning.
Gharavi shot the film in both Tehran in the aftermath of the 2009-2010 Iranian presidential election protests that heralded the Green Movement, and in her hometown of Newcastle. Gharavi was able to shoot the Tehran segment of the film through a covert team of enablers who wanted the situation inside Iran to be told and broadcast to the world. However, this put considerable strain on the Iranian crew, and in particular the production team manager, who was put in jail.
Gharavi drew her inspiration for making I Am Nasrine through her conversations with adult and teenage refugees over an eight-year period. I Am Nasrine has already garnished much praise from Oscar and BAFTA winning actor, Sir Ben Kingsley, who indicated that it is “an important and much needed film.” Likewise, Keith Best, Chief Executive at Freedom from Torture also said:
“I am greatly impressed by a film which conveys such a strong message on so many levels: it portrays the problems faced by Iranians fleeing from the injustices and denial of human rights that they experience in their own country and the added difficulties they face when trying to make their way in the UK especially against a background of enforced illegal working and hostility; it demonstrates how much more we as a society could do to try to understand why asylum seekers come to the UK, from what they are fleeing, to understand that they are human beings like us with the same aspirations and wants.”
What Best indicates concerning the UK refugee experience is very much echoed by Christine Majid, Project Manager at the Leeds based charity, Positive Action for Refugees and Asylum Seekers (PAFRAS). PAFRAS provides humanitarian support for asylum seekers who have been rendered destitute, without food or money and prevented from improving their situation because of government policy. The charity runs a twice-weekly drop-in in which they provide asylum seekers with a hot meal, and casework support. Majid indicates that the immigration system, especially for refugees and asylum seekers is “very punitive- almost like punishment.” As Majid explained, there is a genuine lack of understanding of how the immigration and asylum system works in the UK.
“If [an asylum seeker] comes to the UK and claims asylum [they] have to [do so]…within two days of arriving. [Asylum seekers are then] interviewed by the Home Office. A lot of people who come in are not even dispersed [within the UK] to their accommodation. [Instead] they are kept in detention. So there are a lot of asylum seekers who never see the [UK] because they are kept in detention, put on a plane and flown back [to the country they fled from].”
Additionally, there is no uniformity in the process of when asylum claims are heard. Majid explained that it could take “12 months, 15 months, it could be 2 years, 3 years, or it could be as quick as 6 months. There is no real consistency [when claims are heard].” If a claim is rejected, and the asylum seeker encounters difficulty filing a fresh claim within 28 days, they will be forced to leave their accommodation and all welfare is withdraw. Many of the asylum seekers and refugees that PAFRAS assist are homeless and the most vulnerable of society. PAFRAS currently receives an average of almost 700 visitors each month.
I am Nasrine will be shown during Refugee Week (18th-24th June), a UK-wide programme of arts, cultural, educational event Ticket prices are from £4-£6.30 and activities that celebrates the contributions of refugees to the UK and promotes better understand of why people seek sanctuary. You can help continue the important and much needed work that PAFRAS does by volunteering and/or donating food (tins, dry foods, long-life milk, fruit juices, cooking oil, etc.), toiletries, and clothes.
The Leeds premiere of I Am Nasrine will be followed by a discussion with Tina Gharavi moderated by Sanaz Raji, ICS PhD Scholar, University of Leeds, and a Q&A with the audience. You can reserve tickets via the Hyde Park Picture House online booking or by calling 0113 275 2045.