Output details

Hamedullah: The Road Home

Hamedullah: The Road Home (2011) is a twenty-three minute documentary that follows an Afghan teenager, Hamedullah, in the UK and after his deportation to Afghanistan. The film grew out of Clayton’s work teaching video to young asylum-seekers in the UK (initially in association with Project Phakama and subsequently with the Children’s Society and Tavistock Clinic). Such children struggle to prove their refugee status and at 18 can be summarily deported from the UK. The UK Border Agency does not track these deportees but has historically claimed that they are safe. Clayton’s research involved an investigation into such claims through the long-term gathering of documentary evidence of what actually occurs in such a situation. With the help of local borough care teams, solicitors and refugee networks, she established contact with - and filmed - a number of unaccompanied teenagers awaiting asylum decisions and then documented the experiences of one particular deportee. This involved secretly filming Hamedullah’s deportation and providing him with a small camera that he was able to take back to Afghanistan where he, and later a new friend, shot material that was smuggled back to the UK on DVD. This material was then included in Clayton’s final film. In this regard, the film has not only involved an experimental approach to documentary filming, involving building trust and a collaborative relationship with a young (and frightened) deportee, but has also provided unique visual evidence of the effects of the UK government’s deportation policy. Partly for security reasons, and partly due to Clayton’s interest in ‘mythic’ story-telling structures, the film does, however, omit some of the ‘facts’ of Hamedullah’s specific case. This means that the film may be seen not only to document an individual’s actual experience but also to symbolise the position of deported young people more generally.