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Afghan refugees gather for daily meal in Serbia. Nick Whelan photos[/caption]
By Stephen J. Kotz
Nick Whelan, a 24-year-old filmmaker from Sag Harbor, found himself in the middle of a major international news story when he flew to Serbia on January 30, under the auspices of the International Rescue Committee, to film Afghan refugees who are caught in a no man’s land as they wait to gain entry into the European Union.
Mr. Whelan’s trip came on the heels of President Donald J. Trump’s executive order, since overturned by a federal court, which banned refugees from seven predominantly Muslim countries from entering the United States. The president has said he will soon craft a new order limiting travel.
“When I went over there I did not know what to expect,” he said of his timely but whirlwind, five-day trip, “but I realized if I tried to focus on the big picture it would be overwhelming.”
Instead of a sweeping overview, Mr. Whelan said he trained his lens on two individuals who have been stranded in Serbia for more than a year, an 18-year-old named Rezwan living hand to mouth in Belgrade, and a Farhad, a 10-year-old boy, who is living with his family under better, but still austere, conditions in an established refugee camp outside the capital.
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10-year-old Farhad lives with his family in a Serbian refugee camp.[/caption]
Although the focus has been on the larger refugee crisis involving those fleeing the violence in Syria, Mr. Whelan said the IRC, a humanitarian organization that will use his films for fundraising purposes, estimates there are about 7,000 refugees in Serbia, most of them from Afghanistan.
Rezwan, who left his home in Kabul about a year ago, has lived for the past six months in an abandoned warehouse in Belgrade, with dozens of other men. The refugees make do with donated blankets and bedding they rummage together. The building is always smoky because the squatters are forced to burn whatever they can find to ward off the bitter Serbian winter. They are guaranteed a single meal each day, which is delivered to them by a relief agency.
Mr. Whelan and his interpreter met Rezwan in a park, where refugees meet with the hope of meeting a smuggler who can sneak them over the border. The young man has tried to cross into Hungary 11 times already and been turned back at the border each time.
Rezwan’s parents believe their son has already made it to a country in the European Union but were shocked when a photograph of him taking an open air shower in the Belgrade cold appeared in Afghanistan. Like many of the refugees, Rezwan has a cellphone, which he uses for intermittent contact with his parents back home. When asked about his whereabouts, he lied and said the photograph was not him and that he was already in Germany looking for work, Mr. Whelan said.
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18-year-old Rezwan would not allow his face to be shown.[/caption]
“It was an emotional experience,” Mr. Whelan said, noting that Rezwan was so ashamed he would not let Mr. Whelan film his face. Instead, the filmmaker focused on the young man’s hands and his body language to depict his plight. “It hit me because 18 is an age where you are supposed to be starting life,” he said. “When I was 18 I was lucky enough to get to go to a university. He can’t even get the tools he needs to study. He can’t go back home and he can’t leave. He’s just stuck there.”
Farhad, a 10-year-old from Herat, who has managed to learn a fair amount of English since he and his family left home more than a year ago, was seemingly unburdened by the problems confronting his family. A bright child, who loves to draw, he told Mr. Whelan matter-of-factly how the Taliban made it too dangerous to attend school. “If he were to get caught by people drawing …,” Mr. Whelan said. “That would be taking time away from when he could be studying the Quran.” Farhad and his family live in much better conditions in the refugee camp, but the boy dreams of finding a permanent home. “He’s obsessed with Switzerland,” Mr. Whelan said.
Mr. Whelan is the grandson of the respected filmmaker D.A. Pennebaker, who, he said, certainly influenced his decision to enter the field, but not in the way one might expect. “As an economics major, I was considering working in real estate or a financial institution so I could find myself a ‘successful’ job in the short term, but then I thought about my grandpa’s career,” Mr. Whelan said. “He started filming in the 1950s and is still making films today at the age of 91. His career inspired me to find something I want to do for the long term, to stop looking for a short cut, and to really love the process of becoming something.”
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A refugee takes a cold shower.[/caption]
Self-taught, Mr. Whelan said he made his first foray into filmmaking on a trip to Cuba about a year after graduating from college. A percussionist who had played drums in his college jazz band, Mr. Whelan said he “found a way to incorporate my rhythmic sense, cutting on the beat, treating the film as if it were a percussion instrument.”
Other trips to countries as diverse as Peru, Morocco, and Iceland followed, and from those trips the films flowed. Next on the agenda is a March jaunt to Japan, where Mr. Whelan will film a group of artists who will each spend a week working on their projects before having a group show. After that, who knows?
“Each project funds the next trip, and each trip leads to the next project,” he said.
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Filmmaker Nick Whelan with his driver, Dario.[/caption]
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The refugee camp in Serbia, where 10-year-old Farhad lives with his family.[/caption]
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Afghan refugees live in an abandoned warehouse in Belgrade.[/caption]
on Feb 23, 2017