LIVES IN TRANSIT The Egalitarian Perspective of The Staging Post

Jolyon Hoff’s documentary The Staging Post (2017) is an important piece of cinema for many reasons, not least for humanising Hazara refugees trapped in Indonesia as a result of Australia’s Operation Sovereign Borders policy, designed to ‘stop the boats’. An ethnic minority, mostly based in Afghanistan and predominantly comprising Shiite Muslims, Hazaras are ruthlessly targeted by the Taliban. The Staging Post features two Hazara refugees, Afghanistan-born Muzafar Ali and seventeen-year-old Khadim Dai from Pakistan, who mediate our relationship with their stranded community in Cisarua, a small town south of Jakarta that was once a staging post for boats bound for Australia. Here, men, women and children live in a world of uncertainty as they wait for the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) to determine their status and resettlement. Despite this, The Staging Post reveals, there is an extraordinary sense of community among the Hazaras living in the town, who work together to develop a school for refugees: the Cisarua Refugee Learning Centre. Hoff and his wife, Caroline, lent their financial support to this venture, which educates the children of the community and enables their parents to forge even stronger bonds with one another.

This generosity is also expressed through Hoff’s inclusive and collaborative documentary style, which adopts a refugee’s point of view and dispels many misconceptions and untruths. testifies to the resourcefulness of its subjects, who have managed to transform their limbo-like existence in Cisarua into an energetic and creative environment that fosters