The Other Half (2022) Movie Script
Will you get your
gun out? A Turk!
(gunshot)
(gunshots)
You're turning, you cunt!
-Engine! Kaput!
-Fire! Fire!
-Engine! Kaput!
-Hands up!
Are you kidding us?
You are fucked!
Hands up! Fire!
Where are you going?
Where are you going?
-Go next to him, captain!
-Let's go!
Hands up!
-Catch the rope, catch the rope!
-Hold it! Hold it!
Are you OK, Captain Stelios?
-Come! Come!
-Tie the rope! Tie the rope!
-Turn it off! Go!
-Turn it off!
So, at 08:45...
Write down. I report, my friend,
the arrest of a
Turkish trafficker.
How many? How many?
Take it, you asshole.
Don't curse! Hey, guys! Guys!
Are you listening?
(tranquil music)
(music continues)
(call to prayer)
(footsteps)
(background chatter)
(call to prayer)
I'm learning from these people.
They give me strength, and I've
reconsidered a lot about life.
I learned to appreciate life.
I learned to appreciate
the little things around me.
By seeing how they try...
their thirst for life.
That is, in order to...
to obtain things that
I took for granted.
A house, a relationship,
friendship.
Thank you.
Things we don't pay
attention to. Freedom...
To go for a walk, free.
You know,
in their countries, it's hard.
Under some
regimes it's hard...
to go outside, to speak up,
to express a political opinion.
It's these people who
changed me. Their drive.
Their thirst for life
has changed me as a person.
And this is very beautiful.
I owe these people.
I owe them my everyday life,
my life, my way of thinking.
I've changed the way I think.
Thank you.
When I was little,
in high school...
I didn't like foreigners.
I'd go out and fight them.
I don't know why. It's just,
they were foreigners,
the Others.
This situation has changed
my way of thinking.
I was afraid of foreigners...
And even though I had relatives,
my sisters, in foreign lands...
I'd go out to fight foreigners.
Growing older...
I discovered the value of life.
I discovered...
how it is to search for
your right to live with dignity.
And this is what
these people gave me.
I'm telling you, I owe them.
Freedom! Freedom!
Freedom! Freedom!
(chanting continues)
(footsteps)
(car rumbling)
It was around 1996.
I was doing my military
service on a warship...
in the Navy...
and after a NATO exercise...
we returned to
the port of Patras...
and moored to
spend the night there.
After finishing a shift...
in the engine room,
I went out to get some air.
It was in the afternoon,
and it was the first time
I saw people...
running in the port of Patras...
trying to hide under trucks...
and behind them, a Coast
Guard jeep was chasing them.
This was happening all
afternoon. I was taken aback.
I didn't even know
who these people were.
I asked a friend of mine on the
ship, I said,
"What's going on here?"
He said they're Kurds, migrants,
and they want to go to Italy.
That was the first
time I really got into it.
I got into it because I didn't
even know where Kurdistan was.
I didn't even know
where these people came from.
And there, that thought
got stuck in my mind.
And exactly ten years later...
now as a photographer
with a camera in my hands,
I went back to
the port of Patras...
To try to solve this mystery...
of these people.
I didn't even know
where they came from, where they
wanted to go, why they had left.
(water splashing)
(distant birds chirping)
(splashing)
(distant bell)
But many things had changed.
The faces had changed.
It wasn't Kurds, it was Afghans.
(indistinct)
(background chatter)
(trickling)
(traffic noise)
(police siren)
There are quite a few,
two or three.
How many are you? How many?
How many? Three?
Afghanistan?
You, Afghanistan? Speak!
Come up.
-Do you have documents?
-Wait. Wait. Wait.
(regular clapping)
(singing)
(chanting)
(chanting continues)
(indistinct)
(yelling)
(scuffling)
(police siren)
Have you got documents?
Have you got documents?
Whoever hasn't got
documents will go inside!
How dare you ask me
what's my problem?
(background rustling)
(waves crashing)
"Illegal immigrant."
No, he's a child.
-What's your name?
-Jan Agha.
-And where are you from?
-I am from Afghanistan.
Afghanistan.
-Turn on all the lights.
-To the bow! To the bow!
More to the left.
More to the left.
I don't see a Turk, guys.
Stop the engine!
Stop the engine!
Stop! Stop now!
Yes, yes, this, you asshole.
Pull it, you asshole. Yes.
-Stop the engine!
-Stop the engine!
Who speaks English? You?
What's your name?
-Ali.
-Ali, please, very important.
Don't be afraid.
Yes, I know.
I know you are police.
I give rope. I give
rope, you tie rope.
-You tie rope, OK?
-OK. OK.
Raise the spotlight.
Raise the spotlight!
-OK. OK.
After, easy-easy,
all together come back...
but stay on board, stay
over there, understand?
-Nationality?
-Somali.
Somali! Palestinian?
-Palestinian!
-Afghan?
-No Afghan?
-No, no Afghan.
-OK. Now, who is Turkish?
-No Turkish.
Hey, tell me the
truth now. Who is
the Turkish? Tell
me the truth now.
Hey, you!
Don't make a move or I kill you!
Don't make a move! Hands up!
Everybody hands up!
Everybody! hands up!
-OK!
-Everybody!
Come, come! Go!
Face down!
I say face down! Face down!
Come! Come! Quickly!
Come! Come, you... Come!
I say down! Face down! All!
Down! Down! Come! Come!
Down! Down! Come! Come!
Come! Come!
Come! Come!
Come! What are you doing there?
I say face down, all down! Down!
One, two, three, four,
five, six, seven
Come! Come! Shut up!
Don't shout.
Catch him! You're fucked!
You are fucked!
Don't make a move!
Bring the fire extinguisher!
I'll back a little.
I'll back a little.
-I'll back a little.
-Hands up!
The Turk left. The Turk left!
I'll fuck him!
Fire! Fire!
-One has fallen in the sea!
-OK! OK!
One is in the sea!
Keep him on mark!
Keep your hands off!
-Don't be afraid.
-Don't be afraid.
-Keep your hands off!
-Keep your hands off!
Lifebuoy! Lifebuoy!
Hands up! Your hands,
you asshole!
Up!
I have to go to the front.
-Giorgos?
-Yes?
-Please, stop.
-Stop now.
Turkish coast
guard patrol boat...
This is Hellenic coast guard
patrol boat. Do
you read me? Over.
(static from radio)
Turkish coast
guard patrol boat...
this is Hellenic coast guard
patrol board,
do you read me? Over.
(static from radio)
(birds chirping)
(bird calls)
We traveled from Turkey
to this island.
We kept there for two days,
we were sleeping on the grass,
with no food,
no drinks, with nothing...
and under the
rain. After two days
we passed to the Greece land...
and when we reached there
we were trapped for four days...
also with no food, no drinks...
with nothing and we slept
in the middle of the river...
and nothing could help us.
After that, the police took...
half of the amount of us...
took the half and
they hit them...
and forced them
to give their phones...
and broke their phones and
took them to the Turkish land...
and just threw them there.
-Greek police or Turkish police?
-Commandos.
-Greek or Turkish?
-No, Germany.
Germant, not Greece.
What are you planning to do now?
We want to go back to Turkey
because we are out of energy.
We stayed for six
days struggling...
out of food, out of drinks.
We are almost alive.
-Where are you from?
-Syria.
-And what's your name?
-My name? Hiba.
-Hiba. How old are you?
-Twenty-nine.
-Thank you Hiba. Take care.
-OK.
Which one of you knows them?
When you want to cross
the Evros river...
the traffickers don't let you
take things, a bag, with you.
The traffickers don't let
you take anything with you.
So the migrants
are forced to wear...
many clothes,
as temperatures are very low.
Three or four trousers,
or sweatpants.
This means that,
if the inevitable happens...
if someone falls into the water,
they're very heavy.
Many people lose their
lives that way.
They lose their lives
because they're wearing
too many clothes,
and the river pulls them down.
Or even worse...
if you reach the shore, on
the other side of the river...
and you are wet,
the temperatures are very low...
and you'll most likely
die of hypothermia.
(creaking)
(cloth tearing)
(paper rustling)
(drizzle)
(distant dog barking)
(cracking)
(plastic rustling)
(footsteps)
The slosh, slosh of wet shoes.
The sound of wet shoes.
You see them
walking for hours...
and when they pause,
they take off their shoes and...
the shoe color has come
off onto their feet, their skin.
And then they wear them again,
and the sound is the same.
This slosh, slosh...
And they keep on going without
knowing where they're going.
(footsteps)
(running)
(footsteps)
A few years ago, a request
I made to the Albanian...
border police was
finally approved.
I went two days earlier
than the date of my permit...
and I stayed in the Greek part.
One morning when
it was very cold...
we walked parallel to the
borders on the Greek side...
and curled up under a tree...
They had set a small fire
and were making tea...
in a small pot...
I saw four or five people, they
were all young men from Syria.
One spoke English. He was Ayman.
He was very disappointed...
because he had already tried
three times to cross to Albania.
He was trying
almost every night.
The same thing. He left Greece
through the mountains...
he was caught by
the Albanian border
guards and they'd send him back.
I am Ayman. I am Ayman Omar.
I am 32 years old.
I am here between the border...
Albanian and Greek border...
sitting here for more
than three days.
I come to here to go from
Albania to Europe...
any country of Europe. Maybe
Denmark, maybe Austria.
Because I ran away
from the war in Syria.
I tried from this road
to Albania maybe four time.
Four time I go, two time
the police catch us.
They catch us
and get back to the
border, the Greek border here.
Now I want to go to Europe...
to help my family. Maybe
send them some money, maybe...
give them a passport...
or anything like that.
(engine rumbling)
(road noise)
(indistinct chatter)
(laughter)
(door closing)
(intense chatter)
Stop! Stop!
Everybody down.
(indistinct)
Ayman!
(chuckling)
What happened, man?
You see what happened.
How many times
did they arrest you?
Three time.
And what are you
planning to do now?
I don't know.
(indistinct)
We are all tired. We are
all tired of this situation.
Always like this.
Always like this.
That's enough for us,
that's enough.
That's enough for us.
(engine idling)
When I saw Ayman I was very
ashamed, I was very ashamed.
A few hours ago
I was with him...
and now he sees
me with the police.
Ayman, obviously disappointed,
now knew what awaited him.
(indistinct)
They put them in some vans,
they drove for a few minutes...
and took them near
the borders to an
underground building,
like a tunnel.
(footsteps)
There were some hidden rooms,
like a secret detention center.
The police asked me
to turn off my camera...
and leave the area.
(distant chatter)
I understood that they had got
them ready to push them back.
From there on,
I lost track of Ayman.
Our communication
on WhatsApp ended...
he never replied
to me on Facebook.
I'm sure they turned
him back that night...
but his trace
has been lost ever since.
(indistinct)
(rustling)
(panting)
It was 2014.
Without knowing
the area very well,
I was walking
along the Axios river.
There I found a
group of migrants.
I got to know them a little. I
started taking some pictures...
until, a few minutes later,
a trafficker appeared.
Without telling me much,
or wanting to talk,
he took out a knife,
put it on my neck...
and told me that he would cut me
into a thousand pieces...
and put me
in a pot they had
over there where
they were cooking.
I was very scared.
(footsteps)
I said "OK, I'm sorry,
I'm leaving."
And as I was leaving he told me,
"Dont call the police."
I disappeared,
I didn't set foot
there again, I was very scared.
(rustling)
(birds chirping)
Hello,
my name is Parvis Nowrouzi.
I am 19 years old,
I am from Afghanistan.
I was in Greece for two years...
and now I am in
North Macedonia, in Lojane.
I want to move forward...
to Serbia, to Hungary,
I don't know exactly where.
It is difficult for me
because I have no documents.
I can't, I have no money.
I have no food, nothing.
I can't return to Greece.
I'll get 18 months in jail.
And I can't go forward.
I don't know what to do.
Why did you leave Greece?
Someone stole my red card
and didn't give me another one.
I have no house,
I have no money. Nothing.
And then there is Golden Dawn.
For four months I lived
in Pedion Areos park.
It's hard for me,
I can't live like this.
And I see it will not change,
it will be like this.
Did Golden Dawn
cause you problems?
Yes. Yes.
Very much. Very much.
In the park,
Pedion Areos park...
during the night...
During the night...
they beat us up and I am scared.
In the park, with...
-And then he...
-Stone.
Yes, yes. I was beaten.
And I was there,
I dont have a home.
(panting)
(footsteps)
(fire crackling)
(gentle music)
(music intensifies)
(music fades)
I went back to Idomeni
during the refugee crisis...
when the borders were still open
and people crossed them.
(birds chirping)
(gunfire)
There were incidents where
deep in the meadow you heard...
the soldiers of North Macedonia
shooting in the air...
(gunfire)
and after a few minutes
you saw the migrants...
who were trying to cross...
running to come back to Greece.
There were several
similar incidents.
(indistinct)
(resonant tapping)
Until one morning they started
building a fence.
(banging)
(indistinct)
(rowdy chatter)
One day, I don't know
who gave this information...
they were told that there was
another passage
to North Macedonia.
(cheering and yelling)
Hundreds, I don't know,
thousands of people, moved.
They crossed a torrent, a river.
(intense chatter)
All of this changed nothing.
By the time they reached
North Macedonia...
the army just sent them back.
Whoever arrived was sent back.
It was the beginning of the end.
(coughing)
(crying)
The dream that they would
reach Europe was over...
and their confinement
in Greece had just begun.
(crying continues)
(footsteps)
(boat engine roaring)
(indistinct yelling)
Marcos, from here.
Straight on.
There, there. OK.
Stop, Marcos.
Stop, Marcos. Fuck.
(rotors whirring)
Come inside.
(crowd yelling)
Sit down. Sit down.
(yelling continues)
No! No! No!
No! No! No! Relax! No problem!
Relax! No problem!
No problem! Relax!
(waves crashing)
(yelling)
(indistinct shouting)
(intense chatter)
(indistinct conversation)
(wailing)
(wind roaring)
(indistinct)
(splashing)
(wailing)
(background chatter)
Can you explain to him,
because he feels bad
that the babies are here?
-That's him.
-The babies are here.
It's ours, isn't it?
Yes, the other one.
Sit down, sit down,
sit down! The baby!
(loud chatter)
(baby crying)
-Whose baby is this?
-Give it to me.
Come, darling.
Ask if this woman is the mother.
Who is the Mom? Mom?
Who is the baby's Mom?
-Which baby?
-Christ! There, the little one!
Eighteen, 19, 20,
21, 22, 23, 24...
25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30.
(indistinct voice over radio)
Keep going.
I keep going.
We have an incident in Therma.
Yes, yes. You must be informed.
Don't be late.
They are performing CPR.
We want an ambulance fast!
To go to the hospital.
In many cases,
we found ourselves...
with the cameras
on our shoulders...
and in our hands
we were carrying
a stretcher with a dead person.
(water lapping softly)
And that's when I wondered,
What exactly am I doing here?
What do I want to say,
why am I doing this,
why am I taking these pictures?
What is it like to photograph
a person dying in front of you?
Why should this person die? What
went wrong? Who is to blame?
Will anyone be troubled by this?
Do these pictures have value?
Will anything change?
(indistinct yelling)
(baby crying)
(intense chatter)
(footsteps)
(silence)
Do you know that I often wake up
because it smells like death...
without me having found a body?
Without having seen the body?
I wake up and I know that
we will find someone dead.
If you know about
the direction of the weather...
and if you know
that two or three
days earlier there
was a shipwreck...
and 100 people are missing...
you know that if you
go half a mile farther...
it's quite probable...
that the sea has washed
these people to the shore.
And you know it. I'd wake
up and I'd say that today...
I will go to the shores and the
shores will be full of corpses.
It has happened. And it happens.
And it will happen
in the future.
(splashing)
(waves crashing)
There are people, women,
men and children...
who have committed no crime,
who lose their lives at sea.
(indistinct chatter)
And the worst part is that
there are relatives waiting...
and they never
learn the bad news.
And even more brutal is that
these people are buried...
anonymous, with no one
to cry for them.
Just a grave, a number, a date.
As if they were
never born. As if...
My mind goes to the mother
waiting for that phone call...
from her child upon
their arrival to Europe.
That phone call
that is never made.
(distant bells)
I thought the day was over.
I climbed the hill, in an area
in Megala Therma...
and I was looking at the sea.
Through my lens I saw
a shipwreck.
The sea had turned orange,
I was seeing the life jackets.
It was a large,
double-Decker wooden boat...
which broke due
to bad weather...
and the people were
just like that found at sea.
Three hundred people at sea.
Soon some boats
from the Greek
Coast Guard and Frontex
approached them.
After a while, Greek
fishermen approached...
and soon after I saw from...
Turkey, Turkish
fishermen approaching.
They were pulling
people from the sea.
My fishermen friends told me
that as they approached...
they were seeing corpses
passing under their boats.
A helicopter had also taken off.
I realized that I had to go...
to the port of
Molyvos soon because
those rescued
were arriving there.
Everything is OK.
Everything that we have here.
And the other baby!
I want the other baby too!
Check her! Check her!
(indistinct chatter)
Another Coast Guard
boat brought many babies.
And then, in every boat
that arrived...
among the rescued...
we saw a parent, a rescuer
or a volunteer...
or someone from the
authorities holding a baby.
(indistinct chatter)
Most were dying in front of us.
(engine idling)
This one is
actually fairly well.
I focused on a specific child.
There were a lot
of people beside him.
A girl rescuer...
was trying to revive him...
and I still remember...
her agony when she was counting
in English:
her agony when she was counting
in English:
One, two, three,
four, five, six.
One, two, three,
four, five, six.
One, two, three,
four, five, six, seven,
eight, nine, 10,
11, 12, 13, 14, 15.
Four, five, six, seven, eight,
nine, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15.
(whistle)
One, two, three,
four, five, six,
seven, eight, 9, 10,
11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16.
Only one.
How long have we been going?
Anybody got a time?
Twenty minutes.
... four, five, six,
seven, eight,
nine, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15.
Go, go.
One, two, three, four,
five, six, seven, eight,
nine, 10, 11, 12,
13, 14, 15. Go, go.
(indistinct chatter)
Can one of you help this man?
Talk to him. Say some words.
Anything. Bravo.
(chatter fades)
(silence)
(engine rumbling)
(indistinct conversation)
Almost ten days
after the shipwreck...
the sea was,
as I tell you, just like that.
You were just looking at the sea
and maybe the next wave...
would bring out...
A body would roll out.
Just like that,
a wave came and it rolled.
It brought along
a drowned woman.
A few meters before her, an
old man. Before that, a child.
The man from
the funeral parlor...
who was essentially the one
giving us the information...
saying, "Today, again,
at that beach...
there are corpses."
He was tipping us because
he needed help.
He was all by himself.
He was giving us the information
and in return...
we would help him
to carry the bodies.
It was very weird...
what exactly we were doing
at the time.
What exactly we were doing in
those days, what was our role.
(scraping)
(car rumbling)
One morning, a local man...
in western Lesbos called me.
He was a farmer,
one of my contacts.
He said, "Giorgos...
go to so-and-so shore."
It's an inaccessible area.
It must have been a little
further from Jihranda beach.
These are some areas towards
the west of Lesbos.
(footsteps)
I shared the information
with some colleagues.
With me came Aris Messinis,
Paolo Pellegrin...
and Enri Canaj,
and Grigoris, Paolo's driver.
We arrived in two separate cars.
The drive was difficult...
and we reached a...
The information was...
to guide me, the farmer said...
"It is on the beach
where you found
three bodies a few days ago...
Right next to it." That means...
that the beaches with the
drowned people...
were a point of reference...
Especially in areas
and places we didn't know.
He said, "It will be
very difficult,
to go there. You'll
have to climb down."
He also told me that he had
informed both the Coast Guard...
and the rescue team but because
they had other incidents...
they didn't manage to go...
and especially the Coast Guard
that couldn't approach...
by the sea due to bad weather.
We arrived, we climbed down...
and the first thing I saw...
was an eight- or
nine-month-old baby...
dead, as if someone
had placed it on a rock.
It looked like Jesus.
It was very small.
Without realizing it...
I picked up my camera and took
pictures, without knowing...
As if someone
would take it from me...
and I was taking
pictures very quickly.
But I stopped very quickly.
That is, in 20 seconds,
30 seconds,
I stopped taking pictures...
I pick up my phone and call 112.
And they pick up... "This is
the emergency phone number."
Someone answered in Greek...
someone, I don't know,
from the authorities...
And I say, "I'm at
this location and
there is a dead
baby in front of me."
And he said, "We have been
informed,
but we can't approach."
The other colleagues took
pictures very quickly too...
and we stood there looking at
each other, with a dead baby.
Of course we wouldn't leave...
the baby would be eaten by
the birds.
It was completely exposed.
Or the sea would take it away
with another wave.
I asked my colleague Enri...
to go to the next beach...
where I knew there were a lot of
drowned people
the previous day...
to empty the bags
of their belongings...
and bring an empty bag.
We decided to take
the baby with us.
Enri brought the bag.
I took the baby,
that little creature...
and it was very heavy,
like a piece of marble.
I put it in the bag...
and Aris Messinis put the bag
on his shoulders.
And we began to climb in
order to reach the road again...
to walk to the cars.
On the way I was
holding the bag...
to help him get up...
to get to the cars.
I called the Coast Guard again.
I called 112.
I told them that
we would bring...
the baby back,
that we had taken the baby.
That we could not leave it...
and we arranged to meet the
employee at the
funeral parlor...
at the Petra port,
to give him the baby.
We arrived, we put...
Aris was driving...
I sat in the front
seat and we put
the baby in the
bag in the back seat.
All this situation
had already started...
and I don't know, there were
some memories...
some sounds, I don't know
how this thing came to my mind.
Like when you open a jewelry box
and the ballerina pops up...
and does this children's...
like a lullaby. I thought
I was hearing this sound.
We had to travel
several kilometers...
on a completely rugged road...
and I begged Aris,
I said, "Aris,
please drive a little faster...
to get there. I'm hearing...
children's songs...
in my ears." And he said, "I'm
scared to go faster, Giorgos...
I'm afraid in case
I hurt the baby."
(raindrops splashing)
(distant chatter)
(fire roaring)
(wood cracking)
(wheels squeaking)
Moria no good!
(footsteps scraping)
Oh my God!
(silence)
(train rattling)
(rattling continues)
(footsteps)
(footsteps)
My friend,
ten minutes to the border.
(gentle music)
(music continues)
gun out? A Turk!
(gunshot)
(gunshots)
You're turning, you cunt!
-Engine! Kaput!
-Fire! Fire!
-Engine! Kaput!
-Hands up!
Are you kidding us?
You are fucked!
Hands up! Fire!
Where are you going?
Where are you going?
-Go next to him, captain!
-Let's go!
Hands up!
-Catch the rope, catch the rope!
-Hold it! Hold it!
Are you OK, Captain Stelios?
-Come! Come!
-Tie the rope! Tie the rope!
-Turn it off! Go!
-Turn it off!
So, at 08:45...
Write down. I report, my friend,
the arrest of a
Turkish trafficker.
How many? How many?
Take it, you asshole.
Don't curse! Hey, guys! Guys!
Are you listening?
(tranquil music)
(music continues)
(call to prayer)
(footsteps)
(background chatter)
(call to prayer)
I'm learning from these people.
They give me strength, and I've
reconsidered a lot about life.
I learned to appreciate life.
I learned to appreciate
the little things around me.
By seeing how they try...
their thirst for life.
That is, in order to...
to obtain things that
I took for granted.
A house, a relationship,
friendship.
Thank you.
Things we don't pay
attention to. Freedom...
To go for a walk, free.
You know,
in their countries, it's hard.
Under some
regimes it's hard...
to go outside, to speak up,
to express a political opinion.
It's these people who
changed me. Their drive.
Their thirst for life
has changed me as a person.
And this is very beautiful.
I owe these people.
I owe them my everyday life,
my life, my way of thinking.
I've changed the way I think.
Thank you.
When I was little,
in high school...
I didn't like foreigners.
I'd go out and fight them.
I don't know why. It's just,
they were foreigners,
the Others.
This situation has changed
my way of thinking.
I was afraid of foreigners...
And even though I had relatives,
my sisters, in foreign lands...
I'd go out to fight foreigners.
Growing older...
I discovered the value of life.
I discovered...
how it is to search for
your right to live with dignity.
And this is what
these people gave me.
I'm telling you, I owe them.
Freedom! Freedom!
Freedom! Freedom!
(chanting continues)
(footsteps)
(car rumbling)
It was around 1996.
I was doing my military
service on a warship...
in the Navy...
and after a NATO exercise...
we returned to
the port of Patras...
and moored to
spend the night there.
After finishing a shift...
in the engine room,
I went out to get some air.
It was in the afternoon,
and it was the first time
I saw people...
running in the port of Patras...
trying to hide under trucks...
and behind them, a Coast
Guard jeep was chasing them.
This was happening all
afternoon. I was taken aback.
I didn't even know
who these people were.
I asked a friend of mine on the
ship, I said,
"What's going on here?"
He said they're Kurds, migrants,
and they want to go to Italy.
That was the first
time I really got into it.
I got into it because I didn't
even know where Kurdistan was.
I didn't even know
where these people came from.
And there, that thought
got stuck in my mind.
And exactly ten years later...
now as a photographer
with a camera in my hands,
I went back to
the port of Patras...
To try to solve this mystery...
of these people.
I didn't even know
where they came from, where they
wanted to go, why they had left.
(water splashing)
(distant birds chirping)
(splashing)
(distant bell)
But many things had changed.
The faces had changed.
It wasn't Kurds, it was Afghans.
(indistinct)
(background chatter)
(trickling)
(traffic noise)
(police siren)
There are quite a few,
two or three.
How many are you? How many?
How many? Three?
Afghanistan?
You, Afghanistan? Speak!
Come up.
-Do you have documents?
-Wait. Wait. Wait.
(regular clapping)
(singing)
(chanting)
(chanting continues)
(indistinct)
(yelling)
(scuffling)
(police siren)
Have you got documents?
Have you got documents?
Whoever hasn't got
documents will go inside!
How dare you ask me
what's my problem?
(background rustling)
(waves crashing)
"Illegal immigrant."
No, he's a child.
-What's your name?
-Jan Agha.
-And where are you from?
-I am from Afghanistan.
Afghanistan.
-Turn on all the lights.
-To the bow! To the bow!
More to the left.
More to the left.
I don't see a Turk, guys.
Stop the engine!
Stop the engine!
Stop! Stop now!
Yes, yes, this, you asshole.
Pull it, you asshole. Yes.
-Stop the engine!
-Stop the engine!
Who speaks English? You?
What's your name?
-Ali.
-Ali, please, very important.
Don't be afraid.
Yes, I know.
I know you are police.
I give rope. I give
rope, you tie rope.
-You tie rope, OK?
-OK. OK.
Raise the spotlight.
Raise the spotlight!
-OK. OK.
After, easy-easy,
all together come back...
but stay on board, stay
over there, understand?
-Nationality?
-Somali.
Somali! Palestinian?
-Palestinian!
-Afghan?
-No Afghan?
-No, no Afghan.
-OK. Now, who is Turkish?
-No Turkish.
Hey, tell me the
truth now. Who is
the Turkish? Tell
me the truth now.
Hey, you!
Don't make a move or I kill you!
Don't make a move! Hands up!
Everybody hands up!
Everybody! hands up!
-OK!
-Everybody!
Come, come! Go!
Face down!
I say face down! Face down!
Come! Come! Quickly!
Come! Come, you... Come!
I say down! Face down! All!
Down! Down! Come! Come!
Down! Down! Come! Come!
Come! Come!
Come! Come!
Come! What are you doing there?
I say face down, all down! Down!
One, two, three, four,
five, six, seven
Come! Come! Shut up!
Don't shout.
Catch him! You're fucked!
You are fucked!
Don't make a move!
Bring the fire extinguisher!
I'll back a little.
I'll back a little.
-I'll back a little.
-Hands up!
The Turk left. The Turk left!
I'll fuck him!
Fire! Fire!
-One has fallen in the sea!
-OK! OK!
One is in the sea!
Keep him on mark!
Keep your hands off!
-Don't be afraid.
-Don't be afraid.
-Keep your hands off!
-Keep your hands off!
Lifebuoy! Lifebuoy!
Hands up! Your hands,
you asshole!
Up!
I have to go to the front.
-Giorgos?
-Yes?
-Please, stop.
-Stop now.
Turkish coast
guard patrol boat...
This is Hellenic coast guard
patrol boat. Do
you read me? Over.
(static from radio)
Turkish coast
guard patrol boat...
this is Hellenic coast guard
patrol board,
do you read me? Over.
(static from radio)
(birds chirping)
(bird calls)
We traveled from Turkey
to this island.
We kept there for two days,
we were sleeping on the grass,
with no food,
no drinks, with nothing...
and under the
rain. After two days
we passed to the Greece land...
and when we reached there
we were trapped for four days...
also with no food, no drinks...
with nothing and we slept
in the middle of the river...
and nothing could help us.
After that, the police took...
half of the amount of us...
took the half and
they hit them...
and forced them
to give their phones...
and broke their phones and
took them to the Turkish land...
and just threw them there.
-Greek police or Turkish police?
-Commandos.
-Greek or Turkish?
-No, Germany.
Germant, not Greece.
What are you planning to do now?
We want to go back to Turkey
because we are out of energy.
We stayed for six
days struggling...
out of food, out of drinks.
We are almost alive.
-Where are you from?
-Syria.
-And what's your name?
-My name? Hiba.
-Hiba. How old are you?
-Twenty-nine.
-Thank you Hiba. Take care.
-OK.
Which one of you knows them?
When you want to cross
the Evros river...
the traffickers don't let you
take things, a bag, with you.
The traffickers don't let
you take anything with you.
So the migrants
are forced to wear...
many clothes,
as temperatures are very low.
Three or four trousers,
or sweatpants.
This means that,
if the inevitable happens...
if someone falls into the water,
they're very heavy.
Many people lose their
lives that way.
They lose their lives
because they're wearing
too many clothes,
and the river pulls them down.
Or even worse...
if you reach the shore, on
the other side of the river...
and you are wet,
the temperatures are very low...
and you'll most likely
die of hypothermia.
(creaking)
(cloth tearing)
(paper rustling)
(drizzle)
(distant dog barking)
(cracking)
(plastic rustling)
(footsteps)
The slosh, slosh of wet shoes.
The sound of wet shoes.
You see them
walking for hours...
and when they pause,
they take off their shoes and...
the shoe color has come
off onto their feet, their skin.
And then they wear them again,
and the sound is the same.
This slosh, slosh...
And they keep on going without
knowing where they're going.
(footsteps)
(running)
(footsteps)
A few years ago, a request
I made to the Albanian...
border police was
finally approved.
I went two days earlier
than the date of my permit...
and I stayed in the Greek part.
One morning when
it was very cold...
we walked parallel to the
borders on the Greek side...
and curled up under a tree...
They had set a small fire
and were making tea...
in a small pot...
I saw four or five people, they
were all young men from Syria.
One spoke English. He was Ayman.
He was very disappointed...
because he had already tried
three times to cross to Albania.
He was trying
almost every night.
The same thing. He left Greece
through the mountains...
he was caught by
the Albanian border
guards and they'd send him back.
I am Ayman. I am Ayman Omar.
I am 32 years old.
I am here between the border...
Albanian and Greek border...
sitting here for more
than three days.
I come to here to go from
Albania to Europe...
any country of Europe. Maybe
Denmark, maybe Austria.
Because I ran away
from the war in Syria.
I tried from this road
to Albania maybe four time.
Four time I go, two time
the police catch us.
They catch us
and get back to the
border, the Greek border here.
Now I want to go to Europe...
to help my family. Maybe
send them some money, maybe...
give them a passport...
or anything like that.
(engine rumbling)
(road noise)
(indistinct chatter)
(laughter)
(door closing)
(intense chatter)
Stop! Stop!
Everybody down.
(indistinct)
Ayman!
(chuckling)
What happened, man?
You see what happened.
How many times
did they arrest you?
Three time.
And what are you
planning to do now?
I don't know.
(indistinct)
We are all tired. We are
all tired of this situation.
Always like this.
Always like this.
That's enough for us,
that's enough.
That's enough for us.
(engine idling)
When I saw Ayman I was very
ashamed, I was very ashamed.
A few hours ago
I was with him...
and now he sees
me with the police.
Ayman, obviously disappointed,
now knew what awaited him.
(indistinct)
They put them in some vans,
they drove for a few minutes...
and took them near
the borders to an
underground building,
like a tunnel.
(footsteps)
There were some hidden rooms,
like a secret detention center.
The police asked me
to turn off my camera...
and leave the area.
(distant chatter)
I understood that they had got
them ready to push them back.
From there on,
I lost track of Ayman.
Our communication
on WhatsApp ended...
he never replied
to me on Facebook.
I'm sure they turned
him back that night...
but his trace
has been lost ever since.
(indistinct)
(rustling)
(panting)
It was 2014.
Without knowing
the area very well,
I was walking
along the Axios river.
There I found a
group of migrants.
I got to know them a little. I
started taking some pictures...
until, a few minutes later,
a trafficker appeared.
Without telling me much,
or wanting to talk,
he took out a knife,
put it on my neck...
and told me that he would cut me
into a thousand pieces...
and put me
in a pot they had
over there where
they were cooking.
I was very scared.
(footsteps)
I said "OK, I'm sorry,
I'm leaving."
And as I was leaving he told me,
"Dont call the police."
I disappeared,
I didn't set foot
there again, I was very scared.
(rustling)
(birds chirping)
Hello,
my name is Parvis Nowrouzi.
I am 19 years old,
I am from Afghanistan.
I was in Greece for two years...
and now I am in
North Macedonia, in Lojane.
I want to move forward...
to Serbia, to Hungary,
I don't know exactly where.
It is difficult for me
because I have no documents.
I can't, I have no money.
I have no food, nothing.
I can't return to Greece.
I'll get 18 months in jail.
And I can't go forward.
I don't know what to do.
Why did you leave Greece?
Someone stole my red card
and didn't give me another one.
I have no house,
I have no money. Nothing.
And then there is Golden Dawn.
For four months I lived
in Pedion Areos park.
It's hard for me,
I can't live like this.
And I see it will not change,
it will be like this.
Did Golden Dawn
cause you problems?
Yes. Yes.
Very much. Very much.
In the park,
Pedion Areos park...
during the night...
During the night...
they beat us up and I am scared.
In the park, with...
-And then he...
-Stone.
Yes, yes. I was beaten.
And I was there,
I dont have a home.
(panting)
(footsteps)
(fire crackling)
(gentle music)
(music intensifies)
(music fades)
I went back to Idomeni
during the refugee crisis...
when the borders were still open
and people crossed them.
(birds chirping)
(gunfire)
There were incidents where
deep in the meadow you heard...
the soldiers of North Macedonia
shooting in the air...
(gunfire)
and after a few minutes
you saw the migrants...
who were trying to cross...
running to come back to Greece.
There were several
similar incidents.
(indistinct)
(resonant tapping)
Until one morning they started
building a fence.
(banging)
(indistinct)
(rowdy chatter)
One day, I don't know
who gave this information...
they were told that there was
another passage
to North Macedonia.
(cheering and yelling)
Hundreds, I don't know,
thousands of people, moved.
They crossed a torrent, a river.
(intense chatter)
All of this changed nothing.
By the time they reached
North Macedonia...
the army just sent them back.
Whoever arrived was sent back.
It was the beginning of the end.
(coughing)
(crying)
The dream that they would
reach Europe was over...
and their confinement
in Greece had just begun.
(crying continues)
(footsteps)
(boat engine roaring)
(indistinct yelling)
Marcos, from here.
Straight on.
There, there. OK.
Stop, Marcos.
Stop, Marcos. Fuck.
(rotors whirring)
Come inside.
(crowd yelling)
Sit down. Sit down.
(yelling continues)
No! No! No!
No! No! No! Relax! No problem!
Relax! No problem!
No problem! Relax!
(waves crashing)
(yelling)
(indistinct shouting)
(intense chatter)
(indistinct conversation)
(wailing)
(wind roaring)
(indistinct)
(splashing)
(wailing)
(background chatter)
Can you explain to him,
because he feels bad
that the babies are here?
-That's him.
-The babies are here.
It's ours, isn't it?
Yes, the other one.
Sit down, sit down,
sit down! The baby!
(loud chatter)
(baby crying)
-Whose baby is this?
-Give it to me.
Come, darling.
Ask if this woman is the mother.
Who is the Mom? Mom?
Who is the baby's Mom?
-Which baby?
-Christ! There, the little one!
Eighteen, 19, 20,
21, 22, 23, 24...
25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30.
(indistinct voice over radio)
Keep going.
I keep going.
We have an incident in Therma.
Yes, yes. You must be informed.
Don't be late.
They are performing CPR.
We want an ambulance fast!
To go to the hospital.
In many cases,
we found ourselves...
with the cameras
on our shoulders...
and in our hands
we were carrying
a stretcher with a dead person.
(water lapping softly)
And that's when I wondered,
What exactly am I doing here?
What do I want to say,
why am I doing this,
why am I taking these pictures?
What is it like to photograph
a person dying in front of you?
Why should this person die? What
went wrong? Who is to blame?
Will anyone be troubled by this?
Do these pictures have value?
Will anything change?
(indistinct yelling)
(baby crying)
(intense chatter)
(footsteps)
(silence)
Do you know that I often wake up
because it smells like death...
without me having found a body?
Without having seen the body?
I wake up and I know that
we will find someone dead.
If you know about
the direction of the weather...
and if you know
that two or three
days earlier there
was a shipwreck...
and 100 people are missing...
you know that if you
go half a mile farther...
it's quite probable...
that the sea has washed
these people to the shore.
And you know it. I'd wake
up and I'd say that today...
I will go to the shores and the
shores will be full of corpses.
It has happened. And it happens.
And it will happen
in the future.
(splashing)
(waves crashing)
There are people, women,
men and children...
who have committed no crime,
who lose their lives at sea.
(indistinct chatter)
And the worst part is that
there are relatives waiting...
and they never
learn the bad news.
And even more brutal is that
these people are buried...
anonymous, with no one
to cry for them.
Just a grave, a number, a date.
As if they were
never born. As if...
My mind goes to the mother
waiting for that phone call...
from her child upon
their arrival to Europe.
That phone call
that is never made.
(distant bells)
I thought the day was over.
I climbed the hill, in an area
in Megala Therma...
and I was looking at the sea.
Through my lens I saw
a shipwreck.
The sea had turned orange,
I was seeing the life jackets.
It was a large,
double-Decker wooden boat...
which broke due
to bad weather...
and the people were
just like that found at sea.
Three hundred people at sea.
Soon some boats
from the Greek
Coast Guard and Frontex
approached them.
After a while, Greek
fishermen approached...
and soon after I saw from...
Turkey, Turkish
fishermen approaching.
They were pulling
people from the sea.
My fishermen friends told me
that as they approached...
they were seeing corpses
passing under their boats.
A helicopter had also taken off.
I realized that I had to go...
to the port of
Molyvos soon because
those rescued
were arriving there.
Everything is OK.
Everything that we have here.
And the other baby!
I want the other baby too!
Check her! Check her!
(indistinct chatter)
Another Coast Guard
boat brought many babies.
And then, in every boat
that arrived...
among the rescued...
we saw a parent, a rescuer
or a volunteer...
or someone from the
authorities holding a baby.
(indistinct chatter)
Most were dying in front of us.
(engine idling)
This one is
actually fairly well.
I focused on a specific child.
There were a lot
of people beside him.
A girl rescuer...
was trying to revive him...
and I still remember...
her agony when she was counting
in English:
her agony when she was counting
in English:
One, two, three,
four, five, six.
One, two, three,
four, five, six.
One, two, three,
four, five, six, seven,
eight, nine, 10,
11, 12, 13, 14, 15.
Four, five, six, seven, eight,
nine, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15.
(whistle)
One, two, three,
four, five, six,
seven, eight, 9, 10,
11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16.
Only one.
How long have we been going?
Anybody got a time?
Twenty minutes.
... four, five, six,
seven, eight,
nine, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15.
Go, go.
One, two, three, four,
five, six, seven, eight,
nine, 10, 11, 12,
13, 14, 15. Go, go.
(indistinct chatter)
Can one of you help this man?
Talk to him. Say some words.
Anything. Bravo.
(chatter fades)
(silence)
(engine rumbling)
(indistinct conversation)
Almost ten days
after the shipwreck...
the sea was,
as I tell you, just like that.
You were just looking at the sea
and maybe the next wave...
would bring out...
A body would roll out.
Just like that,
a wave came and it rolled.
It brought along
a drowned woman.
A few meters before her, an
old man. Before that, a child.
The man from
the funeral parlor...
who was essentially the one
giving us the information...
saying, "Today, again,
at that beach...
there are corpses."
He was tipping us because
he needed help.
He was all by himself.
He was giving us the information
and in return...
we would help him
to carry the bodies.
It was very weird...
what exactly we were doing
at the time.
What exactly we were doing in
those days, what was our role.
(scraping)
(car rumbling)
One morning, a local man...
in western Lesbos called me.
He was a farmer,
one of my contacts.
He said, "Giorgos...
go to so-and-so shore."
It's an inaccessible area.
It must have been a little
further from Jihranda beach.
These are some areas towards
the west of Lesbos.
(footsteps)
I shared the information
with some colleagues.
With me came Aris Messinis,
Paolo Pellegrin...
and Enri Canaj,
and Grigoris, Paolo's driver.
We arrived in two separate cars.
The drive was difficult...
and we reached a...
The information was...
to guide me, the farmer said...
"It is on the beach
where you found
three bodies a few days ago...
Right next to it." That means...
that the beaches with the
drowned people...
were a point of reference...
Especially in areas
and places we didn't know.
He said, "It will be
very difficult,
to go there. You'll
have to climb down."
He also told me that he had
informed both the Coast Guard...
and the rescue team but because
they had other incidents...
they didn't manage to go...
and especially the Coast Guard
that couldn't approach...
by the sea due to bad weather.
We arrived, we climbed down...
and the first thing I saw...
was an eight- or
nine-month-old baby...
dead, as if someone
had placed it on a rock.
It looked like Jesus.
It was very small.
Without realizing it...
I picked up my camera and took
pictures, without knowing...
As if someone
would take it from me...
and I was taking
pictures very quickly.
But I stopped very quickly.
That is, in 20 seconds,
30 seconds,
I stopped taking pictures...
I pick up my phone and call 112.
And they pick up... "This is
the emergency phone number."
Someone answered in Greek...
someone, I don't know,
from the authorities...
And I say, "I'm at
this location and
there is a dead
baby in front of me."
And he said, "We have been
informed,
but we can't approach."
The other colleagues took
pictures very quickly too...
and we stood there looking at
each other, with a dead baby.
Of course we wouldn't leave...
the baby would be eaten by
the birds.
It was completely exposed.
Or the sea would take it away
with another wave.
I asked my colleague Enri...
to go to the next beach...
where I knew there were a lot of
drowned people
the previous day...
to empty the bags
of their belongings...
and bring an empty bag.
We decided to take
the baby with us.
Enri brought the bag.
I took the baby,
that little creature...
and it was very heavy,
like a piece of marble.
I put it in the bag...
and Aris Messinis put the bag
on his shoulders.
And we began to climb in
order to reach the road again...
to walk to the cars.
On the way I was
holding the bag...
to help him get up...
to get to the cars.
I called the Coast Guard again.
I called 112.
I told them that
we would bring...
the baby back,
that we had taken the baby.
That we could not leave it...
and we arranged to meet the
employee at the
funeral parlor...
at the Petra port,
to give him the baby.
We arrived, we put...
Aris was driving...
I sat in the front
seat and we put
the baby in the
bag in the back seat.
All this situation
had already started...
and I don't know, there were
some memories...
some sounds, I don't know
how this thing came to my mind.
Like when you open a jewelry box
and the ballerina pops up...
and does this children's...
like a lullaby. I thought
I was hearing this sound.
We had to travel
several kilometers...
on a completely rugged road...
and I begged Aris,
I said, "Aris,
please drive a little faster...
to get there. I'm hearing...
children's songs...
in my ears." And he said, "I'm
scared to go faster, Giorgos...
I'm afraid in case
I hurt the baby."
(raindrops splashing)
(distant chatter)
(fire roaring)
(wood cracking)
(wheels squeaking)
Moria no good!
(footsteps scraping)
Oh my God!
(silence)
(train rattling)
(rattling continues)
(footsteps)
(footsteps)
My friend,
ten minutes to the border.
(gentle music)
(music continues)