By Karl Quinn
In the small but growing field of feature movies shot on smart phones, there have been more dazzling efforts than Chauka, Please Tell Us the Time but surely none more daring.
A portrait of life inside the Manus Island detention centre, this unconventional documentary was made by Arash Kamali Sarvestani and Behrouz Boochani, the former an Iranian filmmaker living in the Netherlands, the latter an Iranian journalist who has been living in detention on Manus Island since August 2013.
Boochani shot the film on the sly and, he believes, at considerable risk; while detainees have been allowed phones in the centre for the past year or so, they are not permitted to use them to take photographs or video.
"The project was secret," Boochani says via phone from Manus, where he remains resident (technically free to leave the centre, but like many fellow asylum seekers, fearing it is unsafe to do so). "Shots of the guards were very hard, because I was afraid they would know and take my phone. I was scared of the refugees too, because some of them don't want to be in the movie or in the media. Some of the shots I really wanted to take – for example, long lines for the food – I couldn't because the refugees didn't want that. I am so sorry for that."
Behrouz Boochani, left, interviews a fellow asylum seeker in Chauka, Please Tell Us the Time.
Boochani shot on a Samsung Galaxy S6, taking care to keep his phone out of sight from the authorities. "Some of the shots I put my phone on the chair and asked some of the guys that they protect me, let me know if the guards are coming. Sometimes I put the phone in a hat."
Kamali Sarvestani set the ball rolling when he sent Boochani a message saying he wanted to make a film about life in the camp. Both fans of the Iranian director Abbas Kiarostami, they agreed it would not be a typical documentary – its conditions of production ruled against that anyway – but rather a mood piece.
"I knew that most likely we can't change anything with the policy at that moment, but we wanted to make something that would stay in the history of this country," Kamali Sarvestani says. "They will demolish the camp, say there was nothing there, but now we have a record."
Boochani recorded interviews with fellow detainees about their often harsh treatment on Manus Island. One talks of having had his throat cut by a guard, another of fearing for his life because he witnessed the murder of Reza Barati in 2014. Many had experienced solitary confinement in a remote camp known as Chauka, perversely named by the Australian authorities after the island's sacred bird.
Behrouz Boochani on Manus Island, Papua New Guinea.Credit: Alex Ellinghausen
Above all, though, what Boochani captured was the sense of tedium, of waiting without end, of the despair that life here creates.
"We wanted to show people that the refugees are the same as you – they are listening to music, they have dreams, they understand love, they have families and children," says Boochani. "They are not perfect, they are human."
Shipping containers used as accommodation on Manus Island.
The documentary has just screened at the Sydney Film Festival, to which both filmmakers were invited. While Kamali Sarvestani attended, Boochani did not.
"A month ago I wrote to the Immigration Department," he says. "Two days before the screening they send me a letter saying you cannot come because you do not have a visa."
Chauka, Please Tell Us the Time screens at ACMI June 16-18. Arash Kamali Sarvestani will introduce all sessions and participate in a Q&A on Saturday and Sunday. Details: acmi.net.au/chauka
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