UNHCR: The UN Refugee Agency

Watch a movie / read a book

There are many ways to learn about refugees and we can’t think of a better one than putting on some popcorn and watching a film, or curling up with a good book.

Movies

Why not rent a film and invite friends over to watch it? Here are some of our suggestions for films which relate to refugees and flight. You may be surprised by some of them!

The Sound of Music [USA, 1965] Director: Robert Wise
Starring: Julie Andrews and Christopher Plummer. A musical telling the story of Maria, a nun, and the Von Trapps, who flee Nazi Germany.

The Terminal [USA, 2004] Director: Steven Spielberg
Starring: Tom Hanks and Catherine Zeta-Jones. When a man enters the US on a tourist visa just as a coup d’etat occurs in his home country, he ends up living in the transit zone of JFK airport.

Casablanca [USA, 1942] Director: Michael Curtiz,
Starring: Humphrey Bogart and Ingrid Bergman. A true cinematic classic. Refugees attempt to escape from the Vichy-régime in Morocco.

Hotel Rwanda [Canada, 2004] Director: Terry George
Starring: Don Cheadle and Sophie Okonedo. The true-life story of Paul Rusesabagina, a hotel manager who housed over a thousand Tutsi refugees during their struggle against the Hutu militia in Rwanda.

Three Kings [USA, 1999] Director: David O. Russell
Starring: George Clooney and Mark Wahlberg. In the aftermath of the Gulf War, 4 soldiers set out to steal gold that was stolen from Kuwait, but they discover refugees who need their help.

Persepolis [France, 2007] Directors: Vincent Paronnaud, Marjane Satrapi
Starring: Chiara Mastroianni, Catherine Deneuve and Gena Rowlands. Poignant coming-of-age story of a precocious and outspoken young Iranian girl that begins during the Islamic Revolution.

The Killing Fields [UK, 1984] Director: Roland Joffe
Starring: Sam Waterston, Haing S. Ngor and John Malkovich. The true story of New York Times journalist Sidney Schanberg and Cambodian journalist and translator Dith Pran, who found themselves trapped in the Khmer Rouge revolution in Cambodia.

In this World [UK, 2002] Director: Michael Winterbottom
Starring: Jamal Udin Mommand and Enayatullah Jumadin. Two young Afghan refugees set out on a dangerous overland to seek asylum in Britain. 

Tears of the Sun [USA, 2003] Director: Antoine Fuqua
Starring: Bruce Willis and Monica Bellucci. Lt. A.K. Waters, a Special-Ops commander leads his team into the jungle of Nigeria to rescue a relief worker, who agrees to go only if they help bring 70 refugees back too.

Arch of Triumph [USA, 1948] Director: Lewis Milestone (based on a novel by Erich Maria Remarque)
Starring: Ingrid Bergman, Charles Boyer, Charles Laughton. In the winter of 1938, Paris is crowded with refugees from the Nazis who live in the back streets trying to evade deportation.

Beyond Borders [USA, 2003] Director: M. Campbell
Starring: Angelina Jolie, Clive Owen. An epic tale of a romance between two people who share a passion for changing the world.

Books

There are a great variety of books written on the topic of refugees - including award-winning fiction – or by refugees. Why not borrow one of these from your local library or buy one from your local book shop?
Do you have a book club? Maybe you would consider adding one of these titles to the reading list.

Alek: Sudanese Refugee to International Supermodel Author: Alek Wek. Publisher: Virago Press Ltd.
A powerful celebrity autobiography from one of the world’s leading supermodels. Wek who was born in war-torn Sudan and witnessed violence from a young age, went to the UK and US and started her fashion career.

My Childhood Under Fire: A Sarajevo Diary Author: Nadja Halilbegovich. Publisher: Kids Can Press Ltd.
Nadja was only 12 when war broke out in Bosnia and here she shares pages of her diary in a powerful first-hand account of the life of a child living through conflict.

Human Cargo Author: Caroline Moorehead. Publisher: Chatto & Windus.
An extraordinary investigation into the fate of the 17 million people currently displaced from their homes through interviews with asylum seekers and refugees, as well as immigration officials and staff at the UNHCR.

Children of War: Voices of Iraqi Refugees Author: Deborah Ellis. Publisher: Groundwood Books.
This frank and harrowing account of young victims of the Iraqi war involves interviews with 24 young people, most of them refugees living in Jordan. Their resilience is inspiring.

“Mufleh - a heady mixture of Brian Clough, Alex Ferguson and Martin Luther King - has wrought an astonishing transformation in the boys and their families, becoming not just a coach but a surrogate parent and stand-in social worker...she has proved the truth of another football cliche: sometimes it is, indeed, more than just another game.” - Chris Maume, Independent, review of Outcasts United

Outcasts United: A Refugee Team, an American Town Author: Warren St John. Publisher: Fourth Estate.
An inspiring story about a single season for a football team in Clarkson, Georgia made up of refugee children. Luma Mufleh, a Jordanian woman sets up a youth football team to unify the refugee children and to keep them off the streets.

The Kite Runner Author: Khaled Hosseini. Publisher: Bloomsbury.
Now a major new film, The Kite Runner is a deeply moving debut novel about a boyhood friendship across class boundaries, told against the backdrop of social upheaval in Afghanistan.

A Thousand Splendid Suns Author: Khaled Hosseini. Publisher: Bloomsbury
This powerful novel chronicles three decades of Afghan history as it tells a story of family and friendship.

Purple Hibiscus Author: Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie. Publisher: Harper Perennial.
An impressive debut novel about the promise of freedom and the blurred lines between childhood and adulthood in Nigeria told through the eyes of a 15-year-old girl.

Refugee Boy Author: Benjamin Zephaniah. Publisher: Bloomsbury.
A powerful and popular novel telling the story of a young boy left in the UK by his parents to start a better life away from the political problems in Ethiopia.

What Is the What: The Autobiography of Valentino Achak Deng Author: Dave Eggers. Publisher: Penguin.
This novel is based on the real-life story of Achak Deng, a young Sudanese refugee who was separated from his family during the Second Sudanese Civil War and is forced to flee.

When Hitler Stole Pink Rabbit Author: Judith Kerr. Publisher: HarperCollins.
In 1933 a young Jewish girl is forced to flee to Switzerland with her family as Hitler is elected to office. The story tells of their struggle to adapt to a new life as a refugee family.

The Other Hand Author: Chris Cleave. Publisher: Sceptre.
A powerful novel telling the story of Little Bee, a 16-year-old Ibo girl from Nigeria has fled her country and is being held in a UK immigration detention centre.

The Complete Persepolis Author: Marjane Satrapi. Publisher: Pantheon Books.
This graphic novel is about a young girl growing up in revolutionary Iran. Now a motion picture, this poignant, and often humorous, memoir tells the story of coming of age against the backdrop of life under a fundamentalist regime.

Videos

If you only have a few minutes to spare, why not watch one of our online videos below?

Fair Play Football Cup 2011 - To mark World Refugee Day, UNHCR Ireland organise a football tournament in partnership with Sport Against Racism Ireland. This short video has interviews with participants and players.

And here is a video from the 2010 Fair Play Football Cup.

 

Angelina Jolie is interview by BBC's Martin Bell on her role as UNHCR Goodwill Ambassador

 

UNHCR Storytelling: Discover incredible individual tales from refugees in this introduction video. Watch all of them here www.youtube.com/storytellingunhcr

Can you recommend a video, film or book about refugees or by refugees? Email us at kennedy@unhcr.org and let us know. We'll add it to our list!