6. Both films deal with people who have to flee their home country because of conflict and in both films, the main characters end up in the USA. Discuss what challenges refugees go through when they flee their country and resettle in another. Include examples from the film and also comment on the opportunities they are given.
To flee from your home country, not knowing what to expect, is something common for many nowadays around the world. We often read about, and maybe sometimes experience, the huge influence the refugee crisis has. We have our own opinions regarded these refugees, however refugees don’t choose to flee. In fact, their biggest purpose is to gain opportunities that their own country couldn’t make. If refugees could choose between their own country and a strange, scary and unknown country, not depended on the lack of opportunities in their home country, they wouldn’t have wanted to flee. Refugees flee because their chances and opportunities in their home country are so limited that when they see an opportunity to get away, they take it. In the two films “The Good Lie” and “The Kite Runner” we see the problems that can encounter for refugees fleeing to another unknown country.
The film “The Good Lie” deals with the fact that adaptions and comprehension till a new country can be difficult. Conflicts, misconceptions and prejudice can occur between different ethnic groups. Different countries have different norms and rules, and not knowing what’s normal for the new country your supposed to be living in, could lead to loneliness and the feeling of being unwelcome. Also, not knowing the language of the country could become a problem for many refugees. There is a lot of adjustments that’s necessarily to avoid conflicts when you flee to another country, and in the movie, we can see how these three Sudanese guys: Paul, Jeremiah and Mamere, try to adjust themselves into the American lifestyle. They struggle, regarded their ethnicity and culture, to find jobs when they don’t have any experience working. This could result in difficulties with their provisional residence permit, therefore the help they get from their counselor give them a chance to start somewhere and work from there. The opportunities are there, however, it will take time for refugees to achieve their ultimate goals. We also saw in this film how these three guys development throughout the movie. They started with living a peaceful life in a little village in Africa, till fleeing from the soldiers without any adults, forced to handle themselves, to grow up in a refugee camp and then later end up in the US. A situation like this could not only influence the physical for these humans, but a lot of refugees also struggle mentally regarded the awful circumstances they witness and experience. Often this mental sickness there forever.
In the kite runner, we also see how Amir’s opportunities change when he moved to the USA. He went to college, and from graduating he could become whatever he wanted. He wanted to become a writer, which we saw he became. Who knows what would have happened to him if his father and him stayed in Afghanistan. He could probably have ended up as Sohrab, his “unknown” nephew, Hassan’s son. Hassan died and Sohrab became a child slave, without any opportunities to decide over his own life. It wasn’t before Amir saved Sohrab and “kidnapped” him back home to America, that Sohrab’s life could start and he finally could start deciding over his own life, like Amir once did.
Ingrid Skjong 