As a result, many around the world were hopeful and optimistic that as the single most important factor that divided the world for almost half a century, the ideological division between the East and the West, no longer stood as a dividing line between the people, the lingering refugee problems in different parts of the world too would disappear and problems related to that disturbing trend would find a durable solution. It was also hoped that those who were once driven out of their homeland would be allowed to return and resettle where their ancestors once lived and are now buried. But two decades on, we find a completely different picture that probably tells more about a shattered dream than anything else.

Early in the twenty-first century the world had seen a slight decrease in refugee population, mainly due to return of some kind of normalcy in Afghanistan, Bosnia, Kosovo, East Timor and parts of Africa. But since then, as renewed conflict spread in the Middle East and some other parts of the world, we're probably now witnessing a reverse trend; and according to some projections the number of refugees all over the world is most likely to show a significant increase this year when the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) is to issue its “2006 Global Trends” next week.

A handful proportion of those new refugees are no doubt will be from Iraq, a country that once attracted people from the developing world to look for new opportunities, but sadly descended almost to the hellish bottom due to utter disregard of accepted human behaviour of those powerful leaders who behave extremely well with their own people but keep a shamefully biased eye on others. More than a million Iraqis are now said to have taken refuge overseas, mainly in neighbouring Arab states and leading a miserable life in makeshift camps. Specially vulnerable are the situation of women and children, of whom many are forced to join prostitution and child labour force in other countries just to ensure a mere survival.

In addition, there are also millions of internally displaced persons in numerous conflict zones around the world and many among them are continuously on the move to find a shelter safe enough at least for the time being. Their numbers too are swelling in Iraq, in Lebanon, in Sri Lanka and also in parts of Africa. How to deal with this serious problem had been a major issue the world community is focusing on for quite some time now. Moreover, there are also forgotten refugees like the “stranded Pakistanis” in Bangladesh of whom nobody seems to care about as their political weight is extremely light compared with those escaping from the misery in Burma or North Korea.

UNHCR representative office in Japan and a supporting group of the UN body known as Japan for UNHCR has come up with a unique idea to spread the news of the plight of refugees around the world by organising a film festival that focuses on this serious problem of our time. The original idea of the festival lies in a joint initiative taken two years ago by the UN refugee body in Cambodia and the French embassy in the country. It was a pilot project of screening films on refugee issues that somehow bypassed the attention of the press.

UNHCR Tokyo representative office took hold of that early initiative and under its auspices the first Refugee Film Festival was held last year in which 20 films were shown during a one-week period. It was a modest success that eventually encouraged the organisers to continue their effort and a second festival started on July 18 with increasing number of films as well as more screenings.

In the list of films being screened in Tokyo are a few award winning feature films and documentaries portraying stories of resilience and inspiration of people forced to leave their homes due to wars and persecution. Among such entries are Iraq in Fragments, winner of Sundance award for Best Director and an Academy Award nominee. This three-part opus offers a portrait of different faces of war: a fatherless boy is apprentice of the owner of a Baghdad garage; Sadr followers in two Shite cities rally for regional elections while enforcing Islamic law at gunpoint; and a family of Kurdish farmers welcomes the US presence, which has allowed them freedom previously denied.

Also in the program is a retrospective of French-Cambodian filmmaker Rithy Penh. Born in 1964, Penh is himself a survivor of the Cambodian genocide. His family joined those millions of Cambodians driven out of Phnom Penh in April 1975, when the Khmer Rouge emptied the city to start an agrarian revolution and take everything to a new starting point. Four years later Penh escaped to Thai border and eventually could make it to France. He is one of the only two members of his large family to survive. Among his eight films being shown in Tokyo festival are two entries that were included in the official selection of the Cannes Festival.

Speaking at a press conference earlier this week, Kirill Konin, the director of the Refugee Film Festival, expressed hope that the festival would be able to carry the message to the world that the refugees are people who have families and children exactly like everyone else, and who unfortunately were forced to leave their homes and now in need of our attention and a little care so that they can return to the respective places where they belong to. He also said that the purpose of the festival is not just showing films, but also to engage the audience into the issues and providing them with ideas of what they need to do to help tackling the problem. Arts and entertainments always serve as a powerful medium to create a better understanding of what is happening around us, and the Refugee Film Festival simply intends to use that medium to make our world a bit more tolerant place for each and every individual.

Konin is also hopeful that the Refugee Film Festival will become a regular annual event, provided support from sponsors, media and sympathetic audiences continue. The festival features films from diverse places, including Cambodia, Serbia, Uganda, Iraq, Israel and Kenya. The one thing common in all of them is that, all are relevant to refugee issues. The nine-day festival will run until July 26 and films will be shown at four different venues in Tokyo free of charge.

Monzurul Haq is a DS columnist.