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A film made by two Atlantic Fellows about the precarious lives of asylum-seekers is to be screened by The Africa Films for Impact Festival (AFFIF) later this month. The film’s director/producer is Mahoro Semege, an Atlantic Fellow for Racial Equity and Tendai Chisirimunhu Kathemba, an Atlantic Fellow for Health Equity in South Africa, is the co-producer of the hour-long documentary called “Seekers.” The film is about two young asylum seekers in South Africa who fight to keep their dreams alive while trapped in a system that denies them the right to education, work and a better future.
“Seekers” follows 22-year-old Bella Kwizera from Burundi and 21-year-old Vincent from the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), who were brought to South Africa as children. Now young adults, their dreams of studying and working are crushed by bureaucracy. The film uses a dramatic documentary style, combining the personal testimonies of real-life asylum seekers with expert commentary and re-enactment by actors. The Fellows hope the film will put a human face to an “invisible” crisis, reframing statistics into urgent lived experience.
What makes this project particularly poignant is that Mahoro is drawing on his own painful experiences as a refugee. Originally from the DRC himself, a country scarred by one of the world's longest, most overlooked conflicts, he has transformed his lived experiences of migration, displacement and the asylum process into this story to advocate for change. You can view the trailer here.
The film will be launched at The Africa Films for Impact Festival, in Abuja, Nigeria, Oct. 29-31. It can also be watched online by a global audience. To register to view the film, fill in this form.
Mahoro said: “This film challenges the narrative of asylum seekers as passive victims and instead highlights their agency, resilience, and vision. Through Bella and Vincent’s story, ‘Seekers’ exposes the invisible violence of asylum systems while celebrating the resilience of youth who dare to dream. As a refugee myself, I have lived the adversity that comes with such marginalization. I have also witnessed how education can transform a life.”
Tendai said: “‘Seekers’ is a story of reclaming one’s humanity in a world that is systemically designed to play out who has the ‘right’ to be human and who does not especially in the treatment of children of migrants and refugees."
The film is a call to action for systemic change. The Fellows are exploring how they might market the film in a way that could generate income for an educational fund for asylum seekers to access education not only in South Africa but in other countries too.
“By establishing a University Student Fund, we hope this film is not just telling a story but changing futures, “said Mahoro. “We envision a precedent-setting effort that could shift South African refugee policy, restore dignity to young asylum seekers, and ignite hope in a generation of displaced youth across the continent.”
The Fellows plan to distribute the film via online streaming platforms and they will also organize community and partner screenings.
Most of the film’s production costs were met by the Atlantic Institute through a pilot grant from the Collective Impact Fund. Other support was provided by AFDA Durban, a leading film school in South Africa, which rented specialist filming equipment free of charge.
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