Mohammed and his family awoke one morning to the sound of gunfire in their village in Myanmar. The father of three describes how his son Ismail went from having a relatively normal life playing soccer with his friends, to trekking through rain-drenched forests to escape Myanmar, and falling sick with diphtheria while trying to settle into life at a refugee camp in Bangladesh. Mohammed and Ismail’s story echoes those of some 700,000 other Rohingya, members of an ethnic Muslim minority forced to flee their homes and their country following a violent campaign by the Myanmar military starting in August 2017. They join hundreds of thousands of other Rohingya people in Bangladesh, uprooted by earlier cycles of violence and persecution.

Director: Melissa Pracht
Producers: Executive and Field Producer - Melissa Pracht; Post-Production - Stina Hamlin and East Coast Digital
9 min | USA, Bangladesh
Languages: Rohingya with English VO

VR + 360 Finalist, SIMA 2019

FILMMAKER Q&A:
https://simaacademy.com/filmmaker-qa/we-are-rohingya/