Letters to Ali (2004)

Director: Clara Law Genres: Documentary, Indie-Arthouse Cinema, Lifestyle, Media, Australian Origin: Australia Certificate: PG Running Time: 106 min

synopsis

Clara Law's LETTERS TO ALI is at once a personal, a humanistic and a political film that echoes Australia’s growing public concern over the treatment of refugees, especially children, in Australian detention centres. The documentary chronicles one exceptional ‘average’ Australian family the Kerbi/Silbersteins, who decide to help on a small level by writing to Ali - a 15 year-old Afghan boy detained at Port Hedland and unaccompanied by any relatives. This letter would prove to be the catalyst for a three-year on-going battle with Australian authorities to get Ali, then a minor, out of detention. Hong Kong-born/Melbourne-based Clara Law and her husband, filmmaker Eddie Fong, felt a similar urge to contribute to the debate after noticing a newspaper story about Ali written by Trish Kerbi in September 2002. Clara, who is well-known as a feature filmmaker (Floating Life, Autumn Moon, The Goddess Of 1967), and Eddie contacted Trish and they decided to make a film about Ali’s case. Clara and Eddie’s personal journey parallels that of Trish and her family as they all travel from Victoria across Australia to Port Hedland in Western Australia to visit Ali, and take up his case for a visa.