To Be a Refugee

Company: UNHCR

Age Range: All Ages

Does NOT Include Teaching Materials

Topic: Racism and Human Rights

Subject Areas: Human rights, Nationalism, Racism, Immigration, Persecution and War, Government, Social Studies, History, Freedom

Film Synopsis: Movie that describes the lives of five different refugees and details their struggles to survive and efforts to be accepted by others.

Running Time and Sections: 1 program—15 minutes

Alex’s Review

Imagine the feeling of walking into a new school and not knowing anyone. Now, multiple this feeling by five, and one would have a guess of how a refugee child must feel in a new country. This film documents the lives of five children, John, Damir and Medin, Pon, and Mina, all under the age of thirteen. Because the film is about children and narrated by children, the story is all the more touching. It is one thing to hear about refugee stories from adults and be affected by them, but the feeling of hearing these heart-breaking stories about children from the children themselves is something even more moving. The kids in these stories each begin by defining the word “refugee” in their own terms. Although each is a different definition, all are the same: a person who has to leave his/her own country because of war. The film goes on to describe the feeling of isolation, being made fun of for being a refugee, and the struggles to fit in to an entirely new world. Refugee children have to go through such tremendous and horrible life-changing events, and then to hear that they all have problems being accepted is even worse. The next time you see someone new at school or being left out of a crowd, try and make a difference. You never know when you could be in that situation and would want someone to do the same for you.