I, like many Americans who consume the news, am no stranger to the international refugee crisis. With continuous violence and oppressive governments around the world, every day,Β thousands ofΒ people are making the braveΒ decisionΒ toΒ leave their homes and seek a livelihood somewhere else. But even with a conscious effort to follow the news, those of us looking at immigration from the outside never really get to connect with the people embarking on these journeys. Oftentimes, we speak with them once they’reΒ settled in a new country or we see the grief on their relatives’ faces when their journey is not completed.Β
Directed by Lorena Luciano and Filippo Piscopo,Β It Will Be ChaosΒ follows the lives of immigrants navigating the refugee crisis across the Mediterranean. Luciano and Piscopo take their cameras into the homes and lives of EritreanΒ AregaiΒ and the SyrianΒ OrfahliΒ family.
Aregai, a former military officer and prison guard, is in the homestretch of his escape from native Eritrea. After living in Sudan for three years,Β AregaiΒ finally made it onto a smuggling boat with his cousins that would cross the Mediterranean to mainland Europe. ButΒ AregaiΒ and his relatives faced an all too common reality on a boat with hundreds of people and faultyΒ electric wiring. The boat malfunctioned and capsized, killing over 300 Eritreans andΒ Somalis.Β Aregai, with the loss ofΒ his cousins, is one of the few survivors who was rescued byΒ ItalianΒ fishermen and landed on theΒ island Lampedusa to await trial after being charged with illegal immigration. With little help from Italy,Β AregaiΒ is eventually granted asylum and resettles as a cook in a Stockholm refugee kitchen.
The SyrianΒ OrfahliΒ family is composed of Wael, Doha,Β their four young children, and Wael’s nephew who are living in Turkey after escaping from their home in Damascus. The familyΒ makes a 24-day trekΒ fromΒ Turkey throughΒ Greece, Macedonia, Serbia, Croatia, and AustriaΒ to Germany where they meet Wael’s brother and eventually resettle outside of Hanover.
The best part of the film is that it brings the viewer into the homes and lives of refugees. Viewers are taken beyond the usual news stories. Instead, they are withΒ AregaiΒ and theΒ OrfahlisΒ as they cross borders and deal with various governments, even if the five-year timeline isn’t always apparent throughout the film.
ThoughΒ ItΒ Will Be ChaosΒ isΒ primarily about the trials of these refugees, the filmmakers also give local Italian citizens who are opposed to immigration a chance to tell their stories and fears surrounding the refugee crisis. While some citizens are just nationalists who want Italy to come first, others speak on their local economies, unemployment, and the fact that there is little federal support for refugees, which then becomes an addedΒ burden of the already struggling, low-income communities.Β A question that alsoΒ always came back to me was how did Luciano and Piscopo film? Throughout the documentary, it is easy to see that the footage goes between actual camera footage and that of a smartphone. The cell phone footage places the audience in several moments of fear and uncertainty. The audienceΒ isΒ there with EritreanΒ Aregai and with the SyrianΒ Orfahlis.
It Will Be ChaosΒ debuts June 18th, exclusively on HBO, just in time for World Refugee Day, June 20th. Available on all HBO streaming platforms,Β It Will Be ChaosΒ is a documentaryΒ film apt for the current times as we look to officials and differentΒ governments for how theyΒ maneuverΒ their nations through the refugee crisis, which as of 2018, has consisted of hundreds of thousands of people leaving various conditions in their homes and finding life elsewhere.
