Warning: this film contains content that some might find upsetting!
How often do we see and hear that and then want to take a closer look. It’s there as a warning but the storyteller also knows that it’s a pretty big hook that is going to attract more viewers.
Another one is: “Based on a true story”. Why does a story suddenly become more dramatic if we believe / know that it really happened? In the past few years, movies based on real-life events have accounted for most of the Oscar winners. As humans we seem able to better absorb a story if it is rooted in reality.
When we were asked to edit this film shown here, it fulfilled the categories of being upsetting and real.
The target audience was school children. The WHY of the film was to show schoolchildren how small acts of hatred can build up into a war.
By taking the approach of focusing on an individual’s personal story, their journey to overcome their jeopardy (the war and its effects) we are left with a FEELING of the horror of war.
How it makes you feel is one of the most powerful elements of storytelling. In time the schoolchildren who view the film won’t remember exactly what was said in it, but they may recount how it made them feel. How they came away feeling that war does terrible things to people.
As well as this the film is also a very strong message as to why we have immigrants and immigration, and the terrible conditions people are forced to endure before they reluctantly flee their homes and family, to try and survive in an unfamiliar country.