Among the refugees: a filmmaker’s epic journey from Syria to sanctuary
A few years ago, 29-year-old Alex Farrell was another struggling young actor in Hollywood who had drifted to Los Angeles from London. “I realised it wasn’t what I wanted and LA didn’t afford me the opportunity,” he says. “It’s easy to get lost in the Hollywood bubble. I decided I was more interested in being behind the camera.”
On a cold, rainy morning, sitting in his two-room cabin behind his mother’s house in Kent, he is drinking pear juice and smoking roll-ups, telling me that, “after seeing the horror and despair refugees face as they seek safety and shelter”, he felt driven to tell their stories.
The result is Refugee, a film shot over an eight-month journey showing the impact of war through the eyes of the people who live through it. “It was awful, heartbreaking, terrifying, and I was naive to think I was ready for it,” he says. “It was bitterly cold. The rain was torrential. People were suffering from hypothermia. Children were frozen, screaming and crying.”
Yet Farrell was struck by their resilience and optimism. “Many had been on the road for months, yet
