Along the Way (2022)

Directed by: Mijke de Jong | 80 minutes | drama | Actors: Sina Nazari, Malihe Rezaie, Nahid Rezaie

‘Along the Way’ by Mijke de Jong opens with restless images of a couple of young women nervously preparing the setting for a recording. A blue cloth is fastened. Nervously, the two take their place in front of the camera one by one. “What should I say?” “Just imagine.” “I am Fatima, we are now in camp Moria, but we would like to go to the Netherlands.” Sister comes into the picture. “I’m Zahra, Fatima’s twin sister, we’re going to make a movie.”

That filmmaking is left to Mijke de Jong for the time being. The images transition into nighttime Iran, three years ago. A group of refugees are transported in a van and pray that they arrive safely. During the day, the group walks in the border area of ​​Iran and Turkey and by an unfortunate coincidence twin sisters Zahra and Fatima become separated from the rest of the family. Panic sets in, but the sisters still have each other. There is no longer any telephone contact with mother. The smuggler who takes care of them takes them to Istanbul after a stopover, and they meet Rahim, who says he has a lot of experience with people smuggling and connections.

Fatima and Zahra get their SIM card back and their bus tickets. On the bus they try in vain to reconnect with their family. Once in Istanbul, the twins look overwhelmed and powerless. Men make nasty comments, but in the park, homeless women look benevolently at the photos of their families, but of course no one has seen them. When things get too much for Zahra, there is Fatima’s comforting arm. Spending the night in the park, on the run from the police, washing socks in a public toilet. The desperation and inhumanity is dripping from it. Fortunately, Rahim is back, who helps them find shelter and work, but who also puts the relationship between the two on edge.

Every now and then the film switches back to camp Moria, where Fatima and Zahra let fellow sufferers tell their story. They tell the most horrible things about their flight to a better future. The shivers run down your body.

‘Along the Way’ is such a hybrid of documentary and feature film, which makes it a bit messy, but with its heart in the right place. The scenes with the twins are played, but based on the experiences of the refugee family. Mijke de Jong became acquainted with Nahid and Malileh Razaei when she worked as a volunteer at the Moria migrant camp on Lesbos. The girls had signed up for a filmmaking course there and so the idea was born to make a film not only about them but also with them. This set-up is of course not unique and sometimes it hurts, because it seems too played-up, but in general the film gives a fascinating, not yet often exposed aspect of the lives of refugees. Having to blindly trust people you don’t know (while knowing that there is a good chance that you will be taken advantage of), the endless waiting, just get on with it. Children who have to miss their family for years because they get stuck in a thorn bush while fleeing. How unfair the world is. And how important it is that we (continue to) see this.