Review: Central Airport THF

Ibrahim Al Hussein (left) and Qutaiba Nafer (right) are refugees in Berlin

Thursday was World Refugee Day and I should have posted this review of a documentary I saw on the plane back to Hong Kong.

It's called Central Airport THF (Zentralflughafen THF in German) and it was released last year. When refugees first arrive in Berlin, they are processed and live at Tempelhof Airport, and the documentary follows an 18-year-old Syrian teen Ibrahim Al Hussein and aspiring doctor Qutaiba Nafer from Iraq.



The airport was originally commissioned by Adolf Hitler and opened in 1923 and it was supposed to be the world's biggest airport. But it wasn't quite big enough and closed in 2008. However since 2015 it is a temporary home to thousands of refugees who want to have a new life in Germany.

The film follows them through most of the year, with Ibrahim narrating most of the time. We follow him through his daily rituals, eating in the canteen that he says serves terrible food, learning German, running outside, and smoking. Lots of smoking.

The refugees live in cubicles with open ceilings in a hangar

Meanwhile Qutaiba volunteers his services as a translator to help medical staff process the refugees in terms of their healthcare needs. He is fluent in English and we see him helping not only translate but empathizing with the refugees, and even acting as a psychologist to two boys, asking them to draw out their memories of their homelands.

The pacing is slow -- but it's a deliberate move by filmmaker Karim Ainouz to show how life in the hangars can be, that the wait for refugees to be processed can take a long time especially when there isn't much for you to do.

Everyone lives in a small space with an open ceiling that has very basic beds and no "door", except for a sheet. A couple with children complains about this, but they are told the sheet is fireproof for their safety. They have no choice but to get used to this arrangement.

Ibrahim talks about whatever memories he has left of his home in northern Syria, his family. He wants to try to remember them as much as he can, and recalls his most terrifying night when he got onto a boat and didn't know if he would still be alive the next day.

They try to find ways to pass the time everyday

This contrasts with the predictable, safe, relatively clean and monotonous life he lives in the hangar, though he has a few friends (smokers) who he hangs out with. At Christmas, there's a party complete with several Santa Clauses and presents for the children, but Ibrahim scoffs the party is hardly festive and that it's for the kids, not for people his age.

On New Year's Eve, fireworks are set off, though for Ibrahim and probably many of the refugees, the sounds remind them of bombs and shooting...

What's also bizarre is that near the hangars for the refugees are large spaces for Berliners to ride Segways, bicycles or even do beekeeping. At night security men in a car spot several foxes in the area who aren't scared of humans.

Director Karim Ainouz wanted to humanize the refugee plight

Nevertheless, viewers take a liking to Ibrahim and want to root for him. He is a thoughtful teen, and anxious to get on with his life. It's hard to imagine what it's like to be by himself day after day, being far from his family and Syria, and trying to integrate into this new country, but Central Airport THF gives a good idea.

Central Airport THF (2018)
Directed by Karim Ainouz
1hr 40 mins

Review: Human Flow

Ai Weiwei follows the plight of refugees in 23 countries

Refugees are all over the world, but have you ever met one?

Leaving their home is their last resort -- it is not a decision they take lightly. Uprooting themselves, carrying their belongings and traveling to a place by foot or boat or train without knowing what the conditions will be like, how much it will cost -- if they will make it alive -- is very scary.

But this is what has happened to millions of people who fled Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan in 2015 to Europe and Chinese artist and activist Ai Weiwei was there to document it.

He was moved by these refugees and wanted to document their lives and their deplorable situation in Human Flow. For two hours and 20 minutes, he goes to 23 countries and greets, walks and talks to refugees to learn more about their plight.

They include the Rohingyas, Eritreans, Sudanese, Palestinians, Afghanis, Syrians, Iraqis, Kurds. We see them up close, staring into the camera looking frightened and at other times up from above, looking like ants.

They walk for days to get to the border to find it closed

Mixed in between are "talking heads", people from the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR), political leaders, doctors, volunteers, even a Jordanian princess, explaining how they deal with refugees. Some try to show their compassion, others criticize governments for not doing enough.

I've seen footage of refugees in camps on the TV news, but this is watching them as they walk for hours, carrying all their items with them, or having to try to keep warm and relatively dry in a tent when it's pouring rain, or living in a giant hangar with subdivided compounds filled with bunk beds. Many struggle just to get clean water, let alone food and decent shelter.

You quickly empathize with them and wonder if you could survive such a terrible situation where no government wants to accept them and leaves them to fend for themselves in the middle of nowhere. The refugees feel they have come so far that they can't go back to where they came from.

Living conditions in makeshift tents are hardly clean

Interspersed between the different scenes are facts like the average time someone is a refugee is 26 years. Palestinians have been refugees for over 60 years. Again I would read about their struggle in news stories, but actually seeing their living environment really brings it home.

They can be in the middle of making bread in a factory and suddenly the electricity is shut off. The water is less clean and there is garbage everywhere. How do they endure this for so long?

Some of the images terrifyingly beautiful -- oil refineries in Afghanistan are set on fire as Islamic State retreats. A man with a mask calmly walks in his robes towards the raging fire with billowing black smoke. Or people in Kenya walking along the desert in a dust storm.

Periodically you see Ai in the shot, walking along or taking pictures or videos on his phone (some of it is used). Sometimes it seems odd to see him there, but at other times he offers comic relief, such as exchanging his Chinese passport for a Pakistani one with a refugee, or making chuar, or meat skewers over charcoal.

Refugees from climate change in Kenya cross the desert

But he wants viewers to see that he was there on the ground, unlike political leaders who don't seem to know or care about what is going on, and would rather close borders than receive these people who have suffered so much.

More people need to watch Human Flow to understand what refugees have gone through, and have a better appreciation for their own situations. Having to physically and mentally endure so much and be treated like less than human beings is shocking and sad.