Withering Refuge

What are typical images of flight and migration and how do they come about? What could a film – this one about the Meheba Refugee Settlement in Zambia – do to subvert the usual clichés? Director Pedro F. Neto visited the camp on several occasions in an effort to find answers to these questions. In his film essay, Neto shows how the refugees lack a voice and are invisible, and looks at the plight of the various ethnic groups that are forced to call this settlement home – one that sits next to a mine. The film also considers what may become of places of refuge such as this as they wither in the face of environmental changes.