EXODUS

Humans have been migrating since the dawn of civilization. For centuries migration has been driven by many factors from weather, food, war to slavery, religious persecution, employment, and human rights abuse, soon in the future we will see a rise in migration due to climate change.

Whatever the cause, currently migration seems to be the big topic in every corner of the world and every country has the immigration issue very close to their politics. The immigrant story is usually met with negative connotations. Many people including the media and politicians perpetuate the myth that any problems we face could be caused by immigration and unfortunately this rhetoric has gained momentum in many countries. Migrants are seen as a burden rather than attracting sympathy. I wanted to show another perspective. We often hear of migrants in terms of numbers. We often forget that behind those numbers are real people. This is what drew me to the project. 

I wanted to go beyond the headlines and seek the real people and look at their individual stories, and by doing that I was hoping to give them a voice. To recognize that these people are just like us who have been put in unfathomable situations through no fault of their own. 

Our film is set in Turkey, but the sad reality is that in truth I could have told the same story in numerous other countries that are also forcing people to flee. My focus was not on the political situation as I did not find that neither engaging or relevant but I was more interested in the fall out and how it effects normal people. 

As someone who has grown up never ever having to think of migration, I was fascinated by putting myself in that situation where I asked myself what would I do if I suddenly had to drop everything I called home and family in order to flee? 

I decided to open with the story of Hakan, an academic who is deemed an enemy of the state yet not having done anything wrong. I thought the idea of a character who is charismatic, successful, and full of life made the character more accessible. I wanted the audience to feel like this could happen to any one of us. It is for this reason that I did not want to focus exclusively on the horrors of migration but to also show the real human moments. The sense of humor, family and love. This was important to me to again emphasize that these people are no different to any of us and we all universally share the same hopes and fears. 

All our characters are based on real stories and events and I wanted to show that the horrors people go through also extends to those left behind and family members who all suffer from losing loved ones. 

My goal was to give a human face to the migration issue and at its heart Exodus is a story of desperation, love, compassion and an individuals will to survive.