Watandar: My Countryman - A Refugee’s Search For Identity In His New Country

New film, Watandar: My Countryman, will screen at Griffith Regional Theatre on Tuesday, June 20.

It is the story of Muzafar Ali, the Fred Hollows Humanitarian of the Year 2022 - his search for identity in his new country, Australia.

The story is told through photographing the descendants of Afghani cameleers who first came to Australia more than 160 years ago.

Hazari artist, refugee and former UN photographer, Ali worked with filmmaker, Jolyon Hoff to create the movie.

The film continues an enduring friendship between Ali and the documentary filmmaker which began in 2013 when Hoff was living in Jakarta and in response to Australia’s ‘stop the boats’ rhetoric, realised he’d never met a refugee.

Hoff searched the internet to find out where they lived, rented a car and drove up the hill to a place called Cisarua where he was introduced to Ali.

Ali is a Hazara artist from Afghanistan who grew up in Pakistan as a refugee.

In 2004, when he was 17, he returned to Afghanistan to work with the United Nations disarmament program.

That work took him across the country and he extensively photographed the regions, providing an insight into rarely documented areas.

In 2015, Ali was resettled to Australia through the humanitarian visa program, living for a time with Hoff and his family.

He and Hoff then made the documentary film The Staging Post, about the process of establishing a refugee-led school in Indonesia, which toured cinemas, community centres and church halls around the country for two years, becoming one of Australia’s most successful documentaries ever.

All the while they raised money to support refugee-led initiatives in southeast Asia, including supporting six schools in Indonesia and Bangkok.

They also support refugee resettlement through the Canadian refugee sponsorship program and other complimentary resettlement programs.

This year, they’re attempting to resettle refugees from Indonesia through Australia’s skilled migration visa program, matching the refugees who, because of the refugee-led schools, are well-educated and native English speakers, with rural and regional businesses who are desperate for capable workers.

The pair continue to advocate for more generous refugee settlement programs in Australia and promote refugee-led initiatives within the global refugee support structure.

The new film, Watandar: My Countryman, which had its world premiere at the 2022 Adelaide Film Festival, came about when Ali was asked to photograph the Afghan Camaleer descendants at their 160-year anniversary celebrations in Marree, in remote South Australia.

His photography project became a personal journey as he recognised, in the descendants, his own search for a new Aghan-Australian identity. Watandar: My Countryman will screen at Griffith Regional Theatre, including a Q&A session with the filmmaking duo at 6 pm on Tuesday, June 20.

Get your tickets at https://www.watandar.com.au.

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