Voices in Deep, Jason Raftopoulos’ second feature, is a rigorously humane, studiously constructed and starkly unflinching view on the personal cost of the refugee crisis. Both screenings (Saturday & Tuesday) will feature a director Q&A.

What audiences might find unexpected is how beautifully it works as cinema. Particularly at an empathetic level. Tracking three protagonists around Athens – an ex-Navy Australian aid worker and two Syrian brothers – the pic boldly employs static framing with resolute attention to mise-en-scène and sound design to create a rare specificity, and we’re drawn inexorably into our fellow humans plight.

If you value humanity, by any definition, then Voices in Deep’s deeply lingering, often harsh but uniquely styled empathy makes for a truly enriching cinema experience.

In the aftermath of Greece’s refugee crisis that started in 2015, Tarek and Zaeed are orphaned refugees. Unable to secure public housing, Tarek pays for food and board by prostituting himself to his abusive pimp Masi, but when a local refugee girl is murdered, the younger brother Zaeed decides to get them out any way he can.

Meanwhile, Bobby, an Australian volunteer worker once dedicated to saving the lives of refugees, is holed up in a motel room. Her recurring traumas of a tragedy at sea
have left her emotionally crippled. She must sell her illegally harvested shellfish before she gets on a plane back to Australia. But when Bobby’s black-market buyer goes missing, she must find a way to offload the shellfish before they turn foul. As tensions rise, Bobby flashes strangers, a compulsive and primitive expression of her post-traumatic anxiety.

Rating

MA 15+

Duration

95 MINS