By Will Hite
We Are Rohingya is a brief but comprehensive gaze into the horrors that an ethnic and religious minority are dealing with in Myanmar. Director Melissa Pracht’s powerful documentary is juxtaposed with the hopefulness that her subjects maintain throughout their challenging journey to find a place where they can live in peace.
The Rohingya are the Muslim population of Myanmar that originally hail from Bangladesh. Both because of their faith (Myanmar has a mostly Buddhist population) and their ethnic identity, they face persecution from both the majority population and the state. The film follows Mohammad and his family as they’re forced to flee their home when their Rohingya village falls under attack. Their journey is rigorous. They have to complete much of it on foot, and later in an unstable row boat.
Mohammed and Ismail’s story echoes those of the other 700,000 refugees forced to flee their country following a violent campaign by the Myanmar military beginning in August 2017. Despite their disposition, the family are able to rely on the kindness of strangers when they reach Bangladesh. They are allowed to sleep in the local mosque and receive treatment from the Doctors Without Borders located in the village. They work hard to build their new homes and attempt to adjust their children to a new life in Bangladesh.
Even though they are accepted in Bangladesh, one of the themes of the film is that their home is Myanmar and they must never forget the reason they had to leave.
I’d give this film a 4 out of 5. I want to know more about Mohammed and the family in addition to the socio-political climate of Myanmar.
Will Hite is a senior at Connecticut College, majoring in theater and film. He’s pursuing a career in screenwriting.
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