Hope: 104 minutes. Rated: M. Director: Steve Thomas
In October 2001, a people-smuggling boat sank on its way from Indonesia to Australia. 353 people died, many of them women and children who were trying to join their husbands and fathers already here on temporary protection visas.
This tragedy barely surfaced in our media, for these were the overheated days of post 9/11, and Australians were angrily arguing about another maritime accident, known as the 'children overboard incident'. This film seeks to remedy this ignorance, by telling the story of the SIEV-X (Suspected Illegal Entry Vessel 'Unknown') through the account of one its survivors, Amal Basry, whose name means 'Hope' in her native language.
With her hair covered in a dark scarf, this middle-aged woman looks very ordinary — like any other suburban grandmother of Middle-Eastern descent. But when Amal speaks she has a voice that demands to be heard, and a story that is unforgettable.
After various brothers and brothers-in-law were killed and tortured under Saddam Hussein's regime, Amal and her family decided they had to leave Iraq. They travelled to Iran, then Indonesia. Finally, she and her youngest son boarded a leaky boat to Australia, where they hoped to be reunited with Amal's husband, who had just been released from the Woomera detention centre.
When the boat sank, Amal spent 22 hours in the water, clinging to the body of a dead woman to stay afloat, and fearing that she'd lost her son forever.
A striking feature of the film is the inclusion of Kate Durham's paintings depicting the 353 people who died on the SIEV-X. Using only her imagination of the undocumented events, refugee activist and artist Durham has created eerily beautiful portraits of wide-eyed children and women floating and disappearing into the murky waters. Amal, who is a friend of Durham's, expresses amazement at the way these pictures reflect her own terrible memories.
There are many questions that remain about the Australian government's knowledge of that boat in our heavily patrolled seas — the film implicitly suggests that a parliamentary inquiry is essential.
But Hope is really about Amal, and the hardships she encounters once she is rescued from those dark waters. Making a life in a new country is hard, especially on a temporary protection visa that precludes overseas travel to see loved ones. And then there is the isolation, the poverty, the haunting ghosts