(Zaman Al Wasl)- “Strangers in the jungle”, a documentary film produced by two refugees in France about the Syrian Refugees in the Calais camp at the boarders between France and England, before dismantling it September 2016.
The film was produced by the Syrian director Tareq Hadad, with his wife, the journalist Sandra Alloush. The film won an Aurora at the Scandinavian International Film Festival.
Tareq Hadad, 31, studies English Literature in Damascus University, obtained the Directing Diploma from the European Institute under the Syrian Director Hisham al-Maleh. He worked as an actor in few series, then worked behind the scene after graduation, to join MBC group in Damascus office later.
Sandra Alloush, 29, studied Architecture Engineering in the Private University of Science and Technology in Damascus, worked as a presenter in many radio stations. She participated in the competition of "Arab Presenter" and reached to the final.
They arrived France August 2015 as refugees, they worked in the French Channel “Arte”, where they produced a weekly programme talking about Syrians’ life in France. One of their destinations was Calais camp to document Syrians refugees' life there. They presented three emotional and touching episodes, then they decided to turn them into a documentary film named :”Strangers in the Jungle”.
The film aims to remind people that lots of displaced and refugees have not arrived to safe place yet, to show that people in Calais are real human being different from the way they are presented in the French and British media.”
Tareq Hadad added that the film disclose the shortage in effort to solve in refugees’ problems, beside documenting the terrible status of Calais camp, especially after dismantling it.
He added that a state of closeness was created among many Syrian refugees in the camp and the film team. Those refugees talked to the team hiding their faces because they did not want their families to know the real state of their difficult life.
The director mentioned Hamdan’s case, one of the essential characters of the film, who was keen to keep his tent clean.
“I was shocked and touched when I noticed the discrepancy in the condition outside and inside the tent, as everything was tidy and in place, that made me realise the need for settlement and finding a home Hamdan and most refugees are seeking”, Tareq detailed.
The French Government had decided to dismantle the camp of Calais September 2016, and transferred its residents to shelters. Sandra and Tareq decided to launch a paper newspaper as an observatory for events happened during the dismantling process, besides publishing different stories of residents and how their lives had become after Calais, added to providing refugees with information in many languages “French, English, German and Arabic”.
The news paper called “Jungle News”, spoke about the community inside Calais, which had schools, shops, worship places and restaurants, not in th way it was shown in the French media.
Sandra detailed that the Arte Channel decided in cooperation with the Hikari group to launch ” Jungle News” as a way to cover the daily events of Calais camp and the dismantling process beside the state of refugees and transfer them to shelters.
The newspaper had established a media office in Calais city with correspondents reporting events in different languages. They sometimes broadcasted report on a special channel on YouTube was made for this purpose.
Hadad explained that “Jungle News” was the first paper newspaper specialised in reporting refugees news and showing them their rights and responsibilities and to find answers to their queries. it was the first one to report daily events of dismantling Calais camp, where the French police kept journalists away from the camp during the process of dismantling.
The director mentioned that number of Syrians in Calais was less than 30, they did not want to leave to the shelter, but they were forced after burning their tents, and the newspaper is going to report their life in the shelter in Paris.
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