Over 65 million people around the world have been forced from their homes to escape famine, climate change and war in the greatest human displacement since World War II. Human Flow, an epic film journey led by the internationally renowned artist Ai Weiwei, gives a powerful visual expression to this massive human migration. The documentary elucidates both the staggering scale of the refugee crisis and its profoundly personal human impact.
Captured over the course of an eventful year in 23 countries, the film follows a chain of urgent human stories that stretches across the globe in countries including Afghanistan, Bangladesh, France, Greece, Germany, Iraq, Israel, Italy, Kenya, Mexico, and Turkey. Human Flow is a witness to its subjects and their desperate search for safety, shelter and justice: from teeming refugee camps to perilous ocean crossings to barbed-wire borders; from dislocation and disillusionment to courage, endurance and adaptation; from the haunting lure of lives left behind to the unknown potential of the future. Human Flow comes at a crucial time when tolerance, compassion and trust are needed more than ever. This visceral work of cinema is a testament to the unassailable human spirit and poses one of the questions that will define this century: Will our global society emerge from fear, isolation, and self-interest and choose a path of openness, freedom, and respect for humanity?
Director: Ai Weiwei
DOP: Christopher Doyle
Filmeditor: Nils Pagh Andersen
Junior Filmeditor: Momas Schütze
Production: Participant Media, Amazon Studios, AC Films
2017 Venice Film Festival
2017 Filmfest Hamburg
2017 Adeleide Film Festival
2017 Telluride Film Festival
2017 Antalya Film Festival
2017 Bambi
2017 Venice Film Festival:
Winner, CICT-UNESCO Enrico Fulchignoni Award
Winner, Fair Play Cinema Award - Special Mention
Winner, Fondazione Mimmo Rotella Award
Winner, Human Rights Film Network Award - Special Mention
Winner, Leoncino d'Oro Agiscuola Award - Cinema for UNICEF
Nominee, Golden Lion Best Film
in Cinema since October 2017