Inside My Heart Documentary: Exclusive short-term viewing available to raise awareness during Refugee Week
To raise awareness during Refugee Week, we are providing you with the opportunity to view the critically acclaimed documentary Inside My Heart, directed by Debra Kellner.
At the peak of the refugee and migrant crisis, three families are forced to flee war-torn Syria and Afghanistan, seeking safe harbour on foreign shores. In the wake of witnessing unthinkable atrocities and having the lives they’ve known wrested away, these people – mothers, fathers, sons and daughters – exhibit remarkable resilience as they fight for survival. The fly-on-the-wall techniques utilized in the film allow us to witness the families’ frustrations over the course of three years and better understand the hopes they have for their children.
Demonstrating the same compassionate eye exhibited in her celebrated photography, director Debra Kellner delivers a vital reminder about the families and individuals who have been swept up in a global crisis that has seen more than 68 million people driven from their homes.
Inside My Heart – produced by Frank Giustra, Serge Lalou and Richard Copans – was supported by The Giustra Foundation with the aim of bridging the distance between those living comfortably in their country of choice and those forced to flee their homes in search of peace and stability. It serves as an artistic piece of encouragement to open our hearts to our global neighbors.
Host a free screening of Inside My Heart at your school, office, home or organization. Sign up for access to the film and we will email you a link and a password. We have also created an accompanying discussion guide and lesson plans, which can be downloaded from the links below:
Discussion Guide
Lesson Plans
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If you ever forget refugees are real people, not a policy abstraction — see this film.
— Lord Mark Malloch-Brown, Chairman of the International Crisis Group
It is a testament to their courage in the face of adversity. I hope that this powerful portrayal helps to generate greater understanding of their plight.
— Filippo Grandi, United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees
Director Debra Kellner and a film crew speak with twins Saghar and Sahar.
Twins Saghar and Sahar fled Afghanistan with their family after their uncle was killed by the Taliban.
Zahra, originally from Aleppo, fled with her four children after ISIS tried to recruit her two oldest boys.
A crew films Zahra and her daughter on a beach in Portugal.
Zahra and her son enjoy a happy moment in a refugee camp in Greece.
Originally from Syria, Mohammed sold everything he had to try to reach Europe with his wife and four sons.
A young girl holds her stuffed Minnie Mouse as Greek police stand blocking the crossing into Macedonia. Thousands of refugees were stranded for months along this border in early 2016.
Inside My Heart features nine-year-old twins Saghar and Sahar, who fled Afghanistan on foot with their parents and found themselves living in snowy Sweden.
Director Debra Kellner with Saghar and Sahar in Sweden.
Every child has the right to play. Here, Saghar and Sahar play hockey with other Afghan refugees.
Zahra holds her youngest son on the beach. She tells him that she hid him inside her heart while they crossed the Aegean Sea.
More than 12,000 refugees/migrants – including Mohammed – were stuck in Idomeni, Greece when the border with Macedonia closed.
In the fields near the Greece/Macedonia border, a Syrian family searches for a place to sleep. After Macedonia closed its borders in the spring of 2016, many refugees found themselves trapped in Greece.
Sahar looks out over a frozen lake in Sweden.
Sahar speaks to a new friend in a classroom in Sweden.
