From Iraq to Bangladesh, Angelos Rallis highlights the human stories behind the headlines.

Over the course of five years, the documentary filmmaker follows a teenage Afrin as he grows up alone on an island of mud and floating materials created by the widening of the Brahmaputra River on the border between India and Bangladesh. The result of this work was the documentary film “The Mighty Afrin: During the Flood”, which premiered at the Thessaloniki Documentary Film Festival.

Every six months, the level of the river rises and gradually this island, like all the others around it, is flooded, forcing millions of people living there to survive with difficulty. The climate crisis has exacerbated the situation.

“I decided to make a film about the climate crisis, so I visited the region of the Brahmaputra River, which originates in the Himalayas and flows into Bengal. About 200 million people live in the stretch from India to Bangladesh. They are very poor, they live in the most elementary way. There is no electricity or access to schools or hospitals. The site has been affected for about 15 years because the river level has risen, resulting in floods and extreme weather events such as heavy rains and strong monsoons. When these islands flood, the men leave to work in the factories, leaving the women and children behind. The thing is, men often never come back,” he says.

They sleep on rooftops

While trying to capture this migration, Angelos Rallis met Afrin. “I was fascinated by her energy, her resilience. At the age of 12, she was the best rower, caught small fish from the river for food and knew how to manage the household. She had dreams, she hoped to get out of there and find out what she wants to do with her life.”

Without a father and mother, Afrin tried to survive alone in a very harsh world. He never went to school without electricity, a television or a mobile phone, and did not know what the world might look like outside the island he lived on and the makeshift house he built.

The director spent four consecutive months with Afrin on this muddy island during the flood. Residents have spent days preparing for the coming flood, which, along with water, will bring tons of dirt into their sheet metal shacks. “It was important to survive the flood the way they had experienced it themselves. […] Many times it happens very suddenly, in half a day the water can rise two meters higher. There was clearly a danger. The weather changes suddenly. Cyclones and lightning are approaching. It’s scary, you’re helpless. There are no lightning rods, for example. I slept on the boat. People in houses build raised platforms and, when they are completely flooded, sleep on the roofs.” Danger is everywhere, because together with people animals are trying to escape from drowning: snakes, rats, goats – all animals are looking for shelter above. “Five hundred meters away we saw an anaconda. The people there had never seen him before. It was washed away by a flood. Four meters,” recalls Mr. Rallis.

Death, poverty and migration

During the flood, some of the people living on the islands will die. But many others end up with illnesses. The nearest hospital is six hours away, and this is under adverse travel conditions.

“One morning Aunt Afrina woke up with a fever. I stopped filming and offered to take her to the hospital. She told me she didn’t want to and went to a local doctor who gave her medical advice. He told her to burn a piece of paper in a fire that is lit at night to drive away evil, and gave her some herbs. The next day the temperature returned. Fortunately, she agreed to take her to the hospital. There the doctor told us that she had appendicitis and a gynecological infection. If we leave her in a day or two, she will die. So simple,” said Mr. Rallis.

When people living on the islands can no longer endure hardship and death, they migrate to the capital by illegally climbing trains bound for Dhaka. In the capital, without any support from the state or any structures, they continue to live in conditions of absolute poverty.

The director also boarded the train when Afrin decided to leave her “home” and chase away her future, like thousands of other children who end up in begging, illegal child labor or even prostitution.

slow violence

The small, charismatic, stubborn Afrin had a different fate in life. Today she is 17 years old and thanks to the efforts of the documentary filmmakers she has taken refuge in a local non-governmental organization that takes her in with other children and gives her the opportunity to eat right, sleep in a safe and healthy environment, go to school and learn English. In the summer, he managed to make it all the way to Qatar, where he participated in the youth football league. An exception among thousands of other children. The number of those living in such conditions in Asia is truly staggering, and yet the millions of these impoverished people rarely play a role in high-level policymaking or decision-making.

The documentary was filmed from 2017 to 2021 and during these years Angelos Rallis took a lot of risks. However, as he tells “K”, he had a strong motive. “I wanted to highlight this situation because it is a problem that goes unnoticed. We see a picture: Ah! It’s flooded there this summer too. But this world always lives there and cannot leave. This is slow violence,” he said.

In 2016, the documentarian was once again in the danger zone, traveling to Iraq on the front lines of the war against the Islamic State to cover the kidnappings of Yazidi women. “This is my job. People need to wake up.”

Information:

Mighty Afrin: During the Flood

Thursday 09/03/2023, time 12:30, John Cassavetes Hall

Available at online.filmfestival.gr

Online show schedule here