
Witness - Far from home
The Tayem family flees Iraq and rebuilds a life in Vancouver, Canada, the fourth installment in filmmaker Lynn Raineault's Witness series made for Al Jazeera and the UNHCR's 60th anniversary campaign, One Is Too Many. The film follows the family through the practical business of starting over: finding housing, learning English, navigating Canadian bureaucracy, and adjusting to a climate and culture with no resemblance to the one they left. Interviews with family members trace the decision to leave Iraq, the uncertainty of the resettlement process, and the small markers of stability, a job, a school enrollment, a rented apartment, that add up to something like a new home. The UNHCR frames the story against a wider count, 15 million refugees and internally displaced people worldwide at the time of filming, but the camera stays close to one household rather than the statistics. It is a modest, specific portrait of what resettlement actually looks like day to day, told through the people living it rather than through policy or numbers.