Highlights
- A documentary on an Iranian refugee's life in Australia won the NSW Premier's Multicultural media award.
- The creator, a second-generation Greek Australian, explains what prompted the portrayal of ‘Mohsen’s story’ more than a decade after his release from immigration detention.
- Working on this documentary has given the producer - a young journalism student - a new perspective on his own migrant heritage and Australian identity.
Mohsen Soltani Zand, an Iranian poet who spent four years in immigration detention in Australia before being granted asylum. He is the protagonist of a documentary that won Georgio Platias the Alan Knight student award.
“But for me, the most rewarding experience was actually getting to know Mohsen,” says the journalism and law student.
“He opened up, and I got to understand that perspective that otherwise I wouldn’t have the privilege to know, and personally I think I’ve made a good friend in the process,” he told SBS Greek.
Mr Platias says he developed a relationship of trust with Mr Soltani during the two months when he was filming the documentary which is based on the Iranian refugee's first-hand account and related testimonies.
Mr Soltani narrates in the documentary: “Anybody who wanted to write the story of what happened after the revolution, the government killed them”.
Source: Georgio Platias
“I knew I had to run away; I didn’t have any other option.”
But getting out of Iran was only the beginning of his years-long journey to safety.
Western Australia’s Port Hedland detention centre and Villawood in NSW became Mr Soltani’s new ‘home’ where he spent four years, from 1999 till his release in 2003.
Seven years later, he would make outside the Immigration Department offices in Sydney, where he said that mandatory detention had destroyed his life.
A tale of struggle, resilience and Australian identity
Fast forward to 2019: Mr Soltani was approached by Mr Platias, a university student who wanted to hear his story.
The timing was not coincidental, Mr Platias explains, citing a year of news dominated by asylum seekers’ struggles, former detainee Behrouz Boochani calling attention on rising incidents of self-harm at Manus Island immigration detention centre and the Tamil family in Biloela fighting deportation to Sri Lanka.
“We usually hear politicians and activists talking about asylum seekers, but I wanted to find an actual person who lived these experiences to tell their story; I think that’s more powerful and provides a better commentary on the issue.”
Mr Soltani’s story, he says, “really revealed itself as this personal tale of struggle, resilience, and now becoming an Australian.”
“Hearing him recounting the story, you sort of reflect on what’s going on today and what has gone on and try to understand it better.”
This reflection process for Mr Platias was reinforced during pre-production through conversations with his grandparents who are post-war Greek migrants.
“I got to know their story more in depth, and past the rollout of the documentary, I think I’ve got a more focused and respectful perspective of my migrant heritage,” says Mr Platias.
Both sides of Mr Platia's family are post-WWII migrants from Greece. Pictured from left, Athanasia Platias, and couple Stella and John Christou. Source: Georgio Platias
The “key virtue”, he believes, emerging from stories of both migrants and refugees, is resilience.
“There has always been a dominant story of a group of individuals coming to this country seeking refuge […] and being marginalised or treated as ‘others’.
“In my grandparents’ case, it was more about the process of forced assimilation and […] how it was all very transactional like you know stories of working at the banana farms in Queensland or fixing train tracks in the Northern Territory.”
Becoming “synonymous” with the country’s recent history, he says, the discourse around both migrants and refugees, has a role to play for understanding Australian identity and the way forward.
“I think it solidifies the fact that the fundamental tapestry of Australia is multiculturalism. It is a shared nation of ethnic groups that have come together over time in a country where opportunity exists and thrives.
“What I’ve realised both in my grandparents and Mohsen’s story is that when you are ‘othered’ or are going through this process of assimilation, is really where Australia makes you struggle to actually fit in.”
