Quartile rating: 6.5/10 · 1 rating
More than 65 million people around the world have been forced from their homes to escape famine, climate change and war, the greatest displacement since World War II. Filmmaker Ai Weiwei examines the staggering scale of the refugee crisis and its profoundly personal human impact. Over the course of one year in 23 countries, Weiwei follows a chain of urgent human stories that stretch across the globe, including Afghanistan, France, Greece, Germany and Iraq.
Ai Weiwei's sweeping documentary covers the global refugee crisis across 23 countries with stunning aerial and intimate cinematography that elevates the human stories on screen. The sheer visual ambition—drone shots of vast refugee camps juxtaposed with close personal moments—is genuinely exceptional. However, the film's episodic, mosaic structure means it sometimes sacrifices narrative depth for breadth, and it can feel overwhelming rather than emotionally focused. The 'acting' dimension here reflects the authenticity and presence of the real subjects, who bring raw dignity to their testimonies. Novelty is solid but not groundbreaking—it follows in the tradition of large-scale political documentaries, though Weiwei's artist's eye gives it a distinct aesthetic sensibility. The ending, like much of the film, is poignant but deliberately unresolved, which is honest but not particularly cathartic.