Tonight’s Film: ‘Back Home, Tomorrow’ With Special Guest Shelley Saywell

julie — Fri, 05 Mar 2010 01:00:52 +0000

Tonight’s film, Back Home, Tomorrow, focuses on two children who confront changed lives in very different circumstances after becoming victims of war-torn environments. Yagoub has fled Darfur to the Mayo refugee camp in Khartoum, Sudan, where he waits for a heart operation to save his life. Seven-year-old Murtaza has lost his left hand to a land mine in Afghanistan. In heart-rending detail, directors Fabrizio Lazzaretti and Paolo Santolini follow Murtaza and Yagoub from their initial admission into hospitals in Kabul and Khartoum, respectively, to their release months later.

Back Home Tomorrow will be introduced by Canadian documentary filmmaker Shelley Saywell. Shelley has won numerous international awards including an Emmy for Outstanding Investigative Journalism and been short-listed for the Academy Awards. At home, her work has garnered three Hot Docs! and three Gemini Awards. Her films include A Child’s Century of War: Travels to three contemporary war zones to look at how war has increasingly affected children. Shelley has personally been honoured with UNESCO’s Gandhi Silver Medal for promoting the culture of peace.

You can read an interview with the directors in this week’s Tandem News.

Back Home, Tomorrow screens at 7 PM at Jackman Hall, Art Gallery of Ontario. For more information or to purchase tickets, please call the TIFFG Box Office at 416-968-FILM or toll-free 1-877-968-FILM. Tickets can also be purchased online at tiff.net/cinematheque or in person at the door.

Back Home, Tomorrow: Program Notes

julie — Tue, 12 Jan 2010 21:47:08 +0000

Children often become casualties of wars they inherit and can’t escape.

Back Home Tomorrow focuses on two children who confront changed lives in very different circumstances after becoming victims of war-torn environments. Yagoub has fled Darfur to the Mayo refugee camp in Khartoum, Sudan, with his family.

The teen is in dire need of a heart operation to save his life, and his family and tribe are faced with the seemingly insurmountable challenge of raising the money needed for his surgery. His life hinges on medical access that is beyond the means of his community.

Hope arrives through Emergency, an independent Italian NGO that provides free surgical treatment to civilian victims of war, land mines, and poverty.

In Kabul, Emergency helps Murtaza, a seven-year old boy who has lost his left hand to a land mine. We see the hospital and rehabilitation centre through this innocent child’s point of view, while watching the victims of war struggle to regain their independence. Both stories are interwoven to provide a rich experience of hope provided to the most vulnerable.

Directors Fabrizio Lazzaretti and Paolo Santolini share the silent aftermath of war and, through the recovery of these victims, a plea for peace.

Program Notes by Alex Rogalski

Toronto Human Rights Watch Film Festival » Back Home Tomorrow

Tonight’s Film: ‘Back Home, Tomorrow’ With Special Guest Shelley Saywell

Back Home, Tomorrow: Program Notes