Film Title:  Don’t Look Back

Company:  UNHCR—The UN Refugee Agency

Age Range:  High School

Does not include teaching materials

Topic:  Human rights, War

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

Film Synopsis: About the effects of war on women refugees.

Running Time and Sections:  1 section—8 minutes

Alex’s Review:

            Through the UN Refugee Agency, countless people are able to volunteer their time to helping others. The agency hires a few people to film in these places and to capture how the refugees’ lives were, have been affected, and are now. “Don’t Look Back” details the horrific reality of how women are affected by the cruelties of war. Throughout this video, the audience will be introduced to five different women and their stories, and also what they have to say about their situations. Starting with the upsetting statistic that out of all the refugees each year, more than 80% are women and children; people that were displaced to a foreign country because of a war they had nothing to do with. Alicia Mosquera Hurtado, a single woman now living in Colombia as the community leader, confirms that point saying, “We need to be respected as human beings, as a civil population….We have nothing to do with this war.” Towards the end of the video, a point is brought to the audience’s attention, that the women solely focus on the future, never looking to their past. You cannot help but wonder what their lives would be like if there was no war in the first place. Now, as fellow human beings, a great duty is upon us to help all the displaced women and children in their individual journeys to start anew.