Find out about two films showcasing stories of asylum and occupation, heart-break and humour.
Students Angus Stanley and Ren Bennett organised and hosted two festival film screenings, raising awareness of the trials of fleeing from Tehran and living under occupation in Palestine, through intimate, personal portrayals.
Love Child offers a heart-breaking portrait of Leila and Sahand, an Iranian couple who are forced to flee for their lives from Tehran where their secret affair and illegitimate child are both considered crimes, punishable by death.
Together with their four-year old son Mani they take refuge in Turkey with dreams of a new life, seeking asylum to either Canada or the US. Intimately filmed over a five-year period, so intimately you often forget this is a documentary, we follow their brave quest to be safe together as a family.
Mayor is a real-life political saga following Musa Hadid, the Christian mayor of Ramallah, during his second term in office. His immediate goals: repave the sidewalks, attract more tourism, and plan the city’s Christmas celebrations. His ultimate mission: to end the occupation of Palestine.
Rich with detailed observation and a surprising amount of humour, Mayor offers a portrait of dignity amidst the madness and absurdity of endless occupation while posing a question: how do you run a city when you don’t have a country?
The screenings were organised by Angus Stanley, MArchD student, and Ren Bennett, BA Film student, in collaboration with the Oxford Brookes Documentary Club.
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