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 DANGEROUSLY ADRIFT - Synopsis
by Jessica Lefkow
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- Dangerously Adrift, is a documentary dedicated to all displaced
people around the world. Paul Moran dedicated a full year of
his life to creating this documentary. The man at home everywhere
was profoundly moved by the plight of those who risk all they
have and know and are in the hope of finding better lives, elsewhere.
In spite of his intentions, Paul never had the chance to rework
the film after completing this version several years ago.
Watching it, one is struck by Paul's tenacity in getting the
story, even in the face of increasing hostility from the Cypriot
authorities. I know that he had been advised to show more of
his own part in this story. Tantalizing glimpses of his passionate,
compassionate involvement in the lives of these refugees appear
and resurface throughout the second half of the film. Perhaps
footage from Paul's master tapes contains more of this material. Sadly, this
film remains topical in that it documents an issue still at the
forefront of international news today.
The displaced people we meet here are a motley collection of
genuinely oppressed or hunted individuals, as well as opportunists,
downright criminals, and those willing to take great risks to
seek peace and prosperity for themselves and their children in
safer places than those from which they hail. In this documentary
filled with moving revelations about their lives, I am always
particularly struck by the story of Richard, a drifter whose
actions may well have saved the lives of everyone rescued from
the original vessel. Out of self-interest, he was given the opportunity
by circumstance to become a braver, better person than he ever
intended to be. This film is a valuable record not just of the
stories of those whose plight Paul Moran captures here so well,
but of our friend Paul's profound commitment to those same people
and issues, as well. It is a dramatic first cut of what could
have been an even more compelling final work.
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Mohammed
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Ayesha and family
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Noora and baby
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Richard
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Transcript : Dangerously Adrift
- Truth Identity and
SURVIVAL
- By Paul Moran
-
- Ext: Cyprus:
A plane lands over a beach in Cyprus. Tired holidaymakers
wearily make their way through the arrival lounge.
- Narration: It was the
season when the great summer migration begins. Hundreds of charter
planes would arrive on the Mediterranean Island of Cyprus full
of eager tourists ready to relax. They would spend their days
sunning their pale European bodies. It was a chance for them
to escape from their everyday worries and to forget about what
awaits them when they return.
- But somewhere of this coast
another kind of charter was about to arrive
- (Fade to black)
-
 Title:
Dangerously Adrift
-
- Voice
over of Mohammed telling his story of escape
Cu of canvas as Mohamed paints his village
-
- Mohamed: 20:00:34: When I was three years old I
lived in the countryside of Syria. Our village was called Marbo
Shari. I don't remember much of it, it's rather foggy. It's like
a dream. I remember how snow used to fall, how we used to play
with friends. It was a very simple life, quiet and delicate.
What I can't forget is when I used to wake in the morning. There
was fog in the air and the dew lay on the grass. It was a beautiful
sight. I will always remember this
- Mohamed 20:08:16 C Shot off screen: I began to
paint seriously when I was at high school. I was involved in
theatre, music and of course my studies. It was then that I became
involved in the political issues of my country.
- Shots of city and people
in Aleppo
- Mohamed: 20:11:10C: At the end of high
school my art was very important. I started having exhibitions
in the city of Aleppo and it was then that the Syrian intelligence
service started harassing me. I was questioned and made the decision
that I had to leave or I would end up in prison.
- Mohamed: 20:14:36 off screen: I
fled to Beirut where I lived for 6 years and spent most of my
days painting but all along I was homesick for Syria. I knew
I couldn't return. I poured my homesickness into paintings. Expressing
my feelings into colours.
- Ws Beirut
- Mohamed 20:17:08 C: Beirut was a dangerous
place for me. I was there illegally and the authorities were
closing in. I had to leave Beirut.
- Cu people on the street talking
- Mohamed 20:27:33 C: A friend of mine
told me about a boat going to Italy and asked me if I wanted
to join. I said I was ready.
- Old man selling fruit on
the street
- Night shot people 02:18:39
D
- Mohamed: 20:22:46 C: In Tripoli we met
the smuggler. He said ok, the trip will start tomorrow, we agreed.
But it wasn't until two weeks later when we were back in Beirut
and dealing with another contact that my friend called me and
told me, it's on, we were to leave the following day.
- I washed my face and got dressed.
I had two bags. I packed some clothes drawing tools, and a pencil
- Driving shot 20:23:15 C
- Mohamed: When we went to Tripoli, I didn't have
papers with me. I was afraid. If a road block stopped us and
I was arrested I could be sent back to Syria..
- POV shot of driving on street
02:03:50 D
- Ws Beirut off Lebanon tape
- Mohamed:
20:24:47 I had a very strange feeling. You know, I could hear
some kind of funeral music. It was like Beirut was saying goodbye
to me. Like a trip into the unknown. I had fear and anxiety yet
at the same time a desire to discover this unknown.
- WS harbour and city 2:16:58
D
- Boat in harbour 02:17:51
D
- D boats in harbour 02:16:22
Mohamed: 20.26.11
B: It was dark when we arrived in Tripoli. We got into a small
boat, which we thought was taking us to a bigger boat. We sat
on the deck and somebody yelled, "Get down, get down below!"
People were dropping on top of each other. Everybody was just
trying to find a place to sit.
- Mohamed: 20.28.13 B: We stayed below until sunrise
and then we were allowed up on deck.
- Shot of the water towards
the sunrise 03:06:41 or 3:10:19 B
- Mohamed: I
told my friend, "Iin three days time we'll be in Italy."
We were leaving the east behind and in the West, 'We may have
a chance to succeed." Everyone on the boat had a strong
desire to get to Italy fast. There we would have to start from
scratch.
- Shot of dawn light reflecting
on water. 03:07:09 B
- Shots of rough sea
- Mohamed: 20:31:00c: We had been aboard for three
days when suddenly the sea turned violent.
- Video of rough sea
- Nura: 18:15:54 (Excited) The water was still
too much. The water was following us.{Water shot} The water would
come like this, like this and from back. {Water shot} and enter
inside the boat pouring on my baby and on, um, me.
- Water shot
-
- Fade
to black
-
- Mohamed: Audio
03:28:22 D off screen: We started developing engine trouble
some of us tried to fix it. I think the Captain became lost and
decided to turn around. It was soon after that, that the engine
died.
- Richard: off screen: When the engine,
um, develop problems, you know, we were on the boat, and then,
uh, we were just praying for God for some help so we stayed there
and then, uh, you know, our food- and then we have shortage of
food and water, you know, so we were on the sea, we then drink
the sea water.
- CU of Mohamed pencil sketches
move to cu of face
- Mohamed: 17:29 :10 I saw people sleeping,
some looked dizzy, others thinking, so I started to sketch. I
was also dizzy but I could still sketch. It's like someone who's
addicted to smoking. Every hour, every hour I needed to sketch
- Nura off screen
- Track in on Nura sketch 17:27:15
Nura: 18:18:57:(crying) It was very
horrible when the water and food ran out. That time, I went to-
they told me to go to captain go to captain and ask him to give
you water. I went to captain. And he told me no food no food
no water. Give your baby seawater. Everybody here take seawater.
Nobody could help me. When they were telling me to give him the
water. Everybody, when he started sick nobody could come to help
me. They give him the water to drink. Then he started vomiting.
My baby was very horrible.
- Sketch of men in a group
17:30:38
- Photos of people down below
- Sketch of hungry man 17:27:34
- More shots of Mohamed paintings
and photos
- Mohamed: 21:21:29: Then the threats between
the Captain and the other groups began. Once when there was a
fight, the captain said we have to kill all the Africans, because
they're non-believers and they've got us into this situation.
Some people started praying and others started making plans to
kill each other.
- Mohamed: 21:18:57: Nura came to me. She wanted water. She
thought we had water, but we didn't. She told me her boy was
dying.
- Cu of moon 23:33:38
- Mohamed: 21:08:30: It was night-time when
the first person died. Everybody was tired and they realised
that death was very near, maybe tomorrow, maybe the day after.
- Painting of water machine
17: 30: 11
- Mohamed: 21:01:50: I remembered how water
evaporates and then the vapour would turn into clear water, the
salt would then fall into the bottom of the pit. Though we had
failed the first time, I tried to set it up again. This time
it worked! I tasted it, and it was good! So my friend and I took
turns making the water and every ten minutes we made one cup.
- Richard:
03:30:00 D You know, I volunteer my life because of what happened
to my family and then what happened on the boat because we know
that we have no any help, you know? When there is a ship passing
towards u,s we just wave and so on, but we couldn't have some
help. So I just pray for my own personality and then I pray for
God that even though I volunteer my life when I die may God forgive
me.
- Mohamed: 21:34:20: Richard couldn't even
swim. They had sort of a makeshift boat. It was like riding a
donkey or something, half their bodies were in the water. They
didn't have any food or water. They just got into the water.
- Mohamed: 21:31:05: When Ibrahim and Richard got
into the water. I realized they only had a small chance of getting
rescued. They were making such a sacrifice for us.
- Closeup of Richard
- Cu photos of desperate people
on the boat
- Mohamed: 11.23.51: What caught my attention
were the faces of the people on the boat. They faces reflected
their feelings. Some people had no expression in their eyes,
not knowing what to do, whether to live or die. Some people had
lost hope, others prayed to God hoping God world help them and
that they would finally be rescued.
- Water shot
- Richard: 03:38:00
D: We did volunteer our lives to find a rescue. But on the first
day we just think we maybe rescued and find help, but during
the second day we know that our life has ended
During our prayers on the sea we saw this Ukrainian vessel.
- Cut to cu ship on sea
- Mohamed: 21:16:30: In the next morning we saw a ship coming towards
us. It started to circle us.
-
- Fade to black
- Shot of Cyprus coastline
with blurred lights
-
- Mohamed: 22:03:31
When we came close to Cyprus, we could see the lights. They shouted
wake up we've arrived. I went up and stared at the lights, it
was incredible it was like I was seeing lights for the first
time. We had survived.
Music
- Boat arriving in harbour
- News video of arrival 22:22:51
- Shots of refugees being fed
and in hospital.
-
- Fade
to black
- Exterior and interior of
house and PM entering
- Phone ringing machine answers
-
- PM: Hi you've reached Paul Moran
leave a message after the beep and I'll give you a call back.
Thanks very much. Bye."
-
- At the computer reading
-
- Narration: I'm
one of the many foreigners that live here in Cyprus. I use it
as a base to freelance for television news, mainly around the
Middle East and surrounding areas. By its location, Cyprus makes
a good launching point.
- I read the news on the internet
about a boatload of asylum seekers that had been rescued and
was asked by a friend, who knew I was scouting for stories, to
take a look. I guessed that outside the island there would be
little interest.
- Over the last couple of years
I've seen refugee stories in Iraq, Bosnia and Lebanon and I understand
that people's attention can be pretty short. So with the odds
stacked against selling this story I still decide to drive down.
- Driving to Limassol
- Narration: It's an hours journey from Nicosia down
the freeway to the port city of Limassol. I planned to spend
an hour or so with them and unless I heard something out of the
ordinary I'd quietly excuse myself and drive back home.
- Refugees on hotel balcony
- Pregnant women sleeping 05:01:45
- Kurds looking bored sitting
around fan 03:21:00
- Pan and throw focus 04:24:11
- WS kids playing
- Narration: There I found a hundred or so Kurds,
Africans, Arabs and Bangladeshis,. Most of them anticipated that
because they had been brought here they would be set free.
The bizarre situation, in which they now found themselves, penned
off from holidaying Europeans below, sparked my interest and
their confusion of stories equally aroused my curiosity. So with
so many nationalities confined in such a small space I wanted
to know how they would possibly pull off their freedom.
- Advertising billboard
- Market shots
- Narration:
Cyprus is a place where identity is important. Greek Cypriots
are protective of their national character and with this permeates
a fear that one-day hordes of foreigners from the Middle East
and Africa will descend upon their island. This is in part due
to the island over the centuries having a variety of landlords,
the Greeks, Persians, Lusignans, Venetians, Ottomans, and finally
the British have all ruled here. But in 1960 Cyprus finally became
independent. The united republic was short lived and both sides
sunk into communal infighting.
- Shots of green line women
- Soldier and green line 08:04:00 D
- Narration: Thousands on both sides went missing,
others fled from home and country to become refugees. Today's
Cyprus exists around me with a surreal line that slices the island
separating Greek and Turkish Cypriots communities. The missing
are still mourned and the refugees still long to return to their
homes.
The newly arrived boat people would be confronted by a government
and a people who from experience, are taught to be suspicious
of outsiders.
- Greek music 8:11:38C
- Exterior of Pefkos hotel
- Shots of tourist, swimming
shot from balcony 10:33:19
- Tourists swimming in pool,
people lounging around pool, drinking at bar 10:30:09
- Shots of pastor looking down
at pool cu of face and eyes. 01:34:22
- Lift door opening 03:30:16
- PM: "Hello how are you"
Camera moves to policewomen 03:30:16
- PM: "Are you are you having a relaxing
morning?
- Policewomen: yes
- PM: Are there many problems up stairs?
- Policewomen: No
Policeman walking rooms radio noise 21:05:55
- Mohamed: 01:11:54: My name is
Mohamed Hanif Breem and I am a Syrian Kurd. I left Syria because
the Syrian authorities were pursuing me as a person and as an
artist.
- Mohamed:14:32:14B: The problem in Syria is being
Kurdish and showing a painting with Kurdish setting will cause
problems. Whatever I draw they censor. In Syria if you draw a
horse it's ok but if I draw it, it's censored. They would interpret
it a different way. Once I drew a tree with four branches but
it was interpreted by the government as the four countries of
Kurdistan. They caught me and I was interrogated.
- Arabs playing batgammon Dv
tape 6
CU of Richard on balcony cu of hands 02:07:04
- Richard: 9.16.00: You know, during a war in Liberia
I've lost of my parents - I'm the only one son from my father
and my mother so I left of Liberia almost nine years now so I
know that I don't have any relatives in Liberia so I decided
to find a solution how I can lead myself and to find a better
solution for my own life or solution for myself. So this is why
I decide to join the trip or to travel or to find a country that
I can make my family.
Kurds kids playing in hotel hallway
- Nura playing on bed with
baby, various cuts 00:20:05
- Nura: 16:33:56B: My name is Nura from Sudan,
southern Sudan. There was war and especially war there was a
lot of killing everybody has to run away for safety
- Nura: 00:17: 36 (Starts to crying): Now I don't know
if the Govt or the UN don't do anything for us we do not have
future any more we don't know, we don't have anywhere to go,
we don't have any place to go, any person to go to, only God
only God that is our house, our father and our mother. Here,
we stay here, I stay here, I cry, everyday I cry. Because I don't
know if I don't have father anymore, I don't know where my mother
is. My three brothers I don't know if they are dead I don't know
I'm the only woman from my mother's children. So I don't have
family so don't send us back to that place. I don't have a home
to go to.
- Exterior of hotel
- Nicos Nicolides: Lawyer for the Boat People 18.22.20
B: They differ in the sense that as I told you they were not
illegal immigrants. They were just people in the sea, you know,
who just had some problems and we just brought them to Cyprus.
So if you are travelling in an aeroplane and has that some mechanical
problems and lands in another country is it a right that they
arrest you and put you in prison?
- Andreas Papamichael: Chief Cypriot Immigration
officer: 02:33:22D: The problem the problem with these people
is that we do not know exactly who they are because they have
no any travel documents. We don't know exactly with whom or for
whom we are speaking. They have not any travel documents or any
identity card or anything else to show us to persuade us that
this is Mr. Ali Mohamed or Mr Papamichael or Mr Moran.
- Nicos Nicolides: The difference is that our constitution
provides specifically that nobody can be imprisoned unless there
is a court order. Because you know there has to be some kind
of court control, supervision. How can somebody go arrest another
person and imprison him without any, you know, control.
- Graphic: Two months later
-
- 13:32:16 Start with close
up of people watching/ protest noise
- 13:32:52 Camera pan to
WS balcony
- 13:30:05 Refugees on balcony
protesting
- 14:04:04 Mohamed clapping
- 14:04:40 Family clapping
- 14:02:20 Man on scooter
looking up
- 14:26:01 People waving
signs
- Fade to black
- WS group and Cu of African
women 05:15:00
- Policeman: 32.39 You have to eat because you drink,
you take the pills. You have to eat it's no good for you.
- No answer
- Policeman:
Don't eat it's not my problem.
- Nura: 5.04.05 I don't want to eat. If I die they can
bury me. I don't want to eat because I can't continue eating
and being here. (Starts crying) Looking at my son like
this is the only a baby I have. He is my life, he is my happiness,
if he is not good I'm not happyI depend on God for my help he
is the only thing I have, God is the only thing I have as I'm
sitting here he is my parent, he is my house, he is everything
I have. Only him I look up to, to help me.
I pray I'll get out. Please. I want you people to help me. Don't
leave me here.
- PM, (off screen): People are trying to help.
Don't worry, people are trying to help.
- Narration: Nura and the others were looking to
me for help.
But what could I possibly do? Give them some comforting thoughts
that you think will make them feel secure? But the words always
sound empty.
- Bagladeshis playing cards
11:34:45
- Kurds sitting in group discussing.
01:05:56
- African meeting
- With a dozen different nationalities
all confined in one space the various ethnic group generally
stayed within each others company whether it was passing the
time of day or gathering for a meeting
-
- African man: {making plea for solidarity during hunger
strike}
What we are now saying those who have been eating all of us ate
we have made a mistake. Let us now be declaration as from tomorrow
and I believe united we stand divided we fall. This my own advice.
- Music begins
- Mohamed painting watercolours
- Cu of paintings: 17:34:33B-17:27:38B
17: 30:14B 17:30:50B-17:27:04B
- Cu of Mohamed's eyes:
- Mohamed: 22:
28:09 C: The only important thing is not to belong to a country
but to belong to humanity. To belong to the beautiful things,
to the things that make sense, the things that have a meaning.
So it's difficult for me to think that people believe that I'm
not qualified to live a free life like a human being. I don't
live on what will happen tomorrow, I live in the present and
I have to take advantage of the present moment which must be
full of work.
Whatever happens later doesn't matter. Whether problems arise,
or we whether we die, the present moment mustn't be wasted.
- Narration: The hunger
strike gradually petered out and when the United Nations High
Commission for Refugees arrived they began the task of judging
who would be given asylum.
- Nura looks out of the hotel
balcony at a tourist girl swimming in the hotel pool..
- Fade to black
- Sharon Hilder: UNHCR
Protection Officer 01:47:45 D: Well, what I normally ask
them is quite simply is why did you leave your country. So I
make the determination of whether or not it's political asylum.
You see political asylum is a big... There are other elements
you come out and most people believe it's political asylum but
you're granted on refugee status based on criteria outlined in
the convention. It could be because they belong to a particular
social group because then that could be they're opposition party
members. It could be that they come from a minority tribe. So
there are different, different elements, um, in it. So political
asylum is the catchall phrase but we do have different sub sections
under that and it's trying to see how they fit in.
- Narration: I arrived at the hotel carrying with
me UNHCR asylum applications forms. Noone was there to help translate
these questionnaires so I was left to try and explain. In spite
of myself, I was being drawn in.
- Walking down stairs into
hotel
- Sahib: Now everybody what we write in there?
- PM: Yes becuse you are refugee status. Are you staying
legally in the present country? Because, yes you are refugees.
- Sahib:Yes only yes
- Cu of forms 19: 28:29
- Little girl playing hide
and seek 19:29:13
- Ayesha sitting outside room,
two shot on balcony 05:31:08
- CU of writing on pad
-
- Narration: In every room that I visited I heard
different reasons for asylum. This is the Al Marlsi family. Their
journey really started eight years ago. Fahad had left his two
boys in Germany under the care of a friend so he could return
to Lebanon. Since then he, his now pregnant wife and daughter
have not been allowed by the German government to return and
their boys were eventually given to the state of Germany for
adoption.
- Ayesha sitting outside room
two shot on balcony 05:31:08
- Ayesha: 5:18:55: It's a feeling of motherhood.
I never forgot them. We are talking about 8 years it's a long
time the minutes the seconds (starts to cry)
- Cu of hands 05:31:32
- CU of photo 05:28:44
- Fahad: 05:27:23:
I feel miserable, it's like a piece of my body missing. It's
like a piece of my heart. They are my children. I didn't find
them in the street they are my children. This is their sister
she doesn't know them. She thinks she is the elder sister. She
asks me 'where are my brothers?
- Ayesha: 05:20:30: What can I do? What any mother
would do? As soon as I see them, I will never leave them again,
no matter what happens to me. I was waiting for this chance,
it was the only chance. I am ready to risk myself even more,
no matter what happens.
- Narration: Their story is another in a maze of
situations, decisions and mistakes that I can never hope too
possibly uncover or understand. I wondered as I left them in
their room, if they would ever had a realistic chance to see
their boys again.
- Fade to black
- Cu of United Nations letter
09:29:06
- Cu of letter saying rejection
0929:44
- Pastor letter in hand 09:27:15
- Pastor: So when we opened the letter the content there
is that we are not granted a refugee that we are not qualify
as a refugee and we didn't know why.
- PM: What happens if you go back to your country?
- Pastor: Then I'm surely I'm going to face the death penalty
- Cuts of people faces 09:32:49
- PM:09: 28:57: You still have that right to
appeal, so all is not lost so don't do, don't do anything dramatic,
be patient, or You have to just get your information together.
- African voice: Do we still have any hope?
- PM: You always have hope you, always have hope, you've
got an appeal that should be hope.
Refugees waiting
-
- Ayesha sitting outside room
looking bored 03: 21:30
- Cu of Mohamed
- Mohamed: 22:12:47 B :
It's just the waiting. One is just waiting for this decision.
But when is this decision going to be made? One doesn't know.
So you're alert and vigilant all the time. There's no specific
period, you're waiting every moment, you're alert every moment.
You're tense all the time. Preparing how to react to this destiny.
- WS house bells ringing 6:31:16
D
- PM in the house
- PM: So you're saying that the police used
force to try and deport you?
- Pastor phone interview: Yes they used force. Even,
they brought gun. They brought gun yesterday. They got it. Maybe
they wanted to shoot us and we are ready to die yesterday.
- PM: So what are you going to do?
- Pastor: Well, we are still angry. Even this morning,
we wanted to, we wanted to go down. To go down and cause a, cause
a road block- we wanted to go down now.
- We wanted to force ourselves
out!
- Music: Geo track 10
- Driving POV and Limassol
sign 07:36:14
- PM:
I get a bad feeling about this
- Rioting shot off screen Logos
tape
- More rioting Logos TV tape
- Police arriving carrying
batons 07:11:04
- Refugee kids on balcony 8:12:26
- Policeman 21:24:25
- On phone call with Richard
- PM: 07:35:24B:
So what are you asking for now?
- Richard: We are asking for freedom.
- PM: You can't just ask for your freedom. You have
to talk to someone about it.
- WS Hotel showing 07:17:22
- Cu crowd 07:18:44
- Running up stairs 7.36:37B
- Logos news: Cypriot screaming
up at them
- Walking along corridor 8:04:06B
- Riot police block road
- Cu Nura on balcony 7:14:04`
- Riot police foreground Nura
on balcony
- Walking around corner discovering
injured on floor 19:13:17
- Injured on ground
- PM: Did you attack the police?
- African: No. No. What do I have to attack? I didn't attack.
They were trying to force me inside. I said that we are not here
for problem. They were beating us. Do you see all these places?
This with baton.
- Frightened child and father
08:18:38B
- Small girl 08:22:32B
- Little Kurdish girl
- Mohamed 19.03.13: You have two types
of authority, one that cares for you and the other that wants
to control your life. The treatment is like an authority that
is trying to control us. They are trying to control, they don't
care about us.
- PM: You fight the police they'll fight you back. So
just go peacefully.
- African voice: We were not fighting them
- PM: I know. Look, you have to
- African voice: We were not fighting them. They came
here we told them that we are not ready to fight them.
- PM: You have to wait
- Richard: 19.20.34 We don't want to fight
them but the sergeant told them that they should attack us.
- Because we are ready to die-
I'm ready to die, that is why I, I volunteer my life in the sea
for two days. To find a rescue ship, Ukrainian ship - so me I'm
ready to die. If they don't want to free me I'm ready to die
here in Cyprus. And if I die they should, they should keep on
in mind that if they treat black as an animal, they treat them
in South Africa or European countries even in America they will
treat them as they treat us here. This is our problem. We do
not have any problem with the Cyprus government or the police
they was trying to treat us like animals and I know that most
of them didn't travel before If they had travelled before they
would know what is a human being. They think we are animals and
we are not animals. They don't want, they don't want- they told
us they don't want black to stay in Cyprus. We are black monkeys
and we are not monkeys here in Cyprus. They rescue us, they rescue
us to help us, not they rescue to feed us, to spend money on
us and to kill us.19.21.42
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