A new documentary directed by Hamy Ramezan and comedian Ali Jahangiri has received the main award for over 30-minute domestic films at the Tampere Film Festival. The film, Refugee Unknown, is a rare look at the Europe-wide asylum seeker migration from the point of view of the refugees themselves.

“I didn’t want my camera to lie at all,” director Ramezan says. “These people are often misrepresented and rendered faceless in the media. Words like ‘flood’ and ‘horde’ are used and there’s a lot of fear-mongering. I knew that wasn’t the whole story and I wanted to show people that and help calm the situation down.”

Ramezan is an accomplished film director, and Refugee Unknown is his first documentary. He says he found the style of the film as an answer to the topic’s needs.

“I wanted the imagery to not be manipulated. I noticed that when you stand still for long enough, life starts to happen right in front of the camera. I didn’t need to seek out what the film needed, those things came on their own,” Ramezan says.

Truth and hardship

The most important thing to both Ramezan and Jahangiri, they say, was for the documentary to reflect the truth. Asylum seekers in the film are neither judged nor idealised. As an example Jahangiri cites a scene where a refugee calls a female European clown performer a whore.

“We had to keep things in the film that were despicable to us. That’s what was most difficult and most important. That guy was a complete jerk and said some absurd things. But we wanted the documentary to be truthful,” Jahangiri exaplains. “We encountered all kinds of people just trying to get by and living their lives.”

Ramezan and Jahangiri traveled with the refugees for three weeks during the shooting of the documentary. Their trip took them from the Greek island of Lesbos to the European continent, and on to Macedonia, Serbia and the border of Austria and Germany, where the so-called “Balkan route” ends.

The filmmakers say they believe the trip was a positive experience for them despite the hardship.

“I want everyone to understand that we are all people. There is no need to be afraid. If you’re afraid of people, you will be afraid every day. Our society does not need to fear the refugees entering Europe,” Ramezan says.

At the Tampere Film Festival in southern Finland, Refugee Unknown recently won the main prize in the category of over 30-minute films. According to the jury, the film “manages to penetrate its politically heated topic and to build a remarkable image of man and humankind.” The film was also voted the audience’s favorite in the national competition.

The documentary Refugee Unknown (Tuntematon pakolainen) will be shown on TV1 on March 21 at 9:30 pm.