Chauka Please Tell Us The Time

An urgent and powerful documentary shot in a detention centre where asylum seekers trying to reach Australian shores are indefinitely detained Secretly shot on a mobile phone by Iranian journalist Behrouz Boochani while detained on Manus in Papua New Guinea the film is a collaboration with DutchIranian filmmaker Arash Kamali Sarvestani Boochani recounts via the testimonies of fellow inmates the abuse and violence inflicted and the precarious state of limbo they find themselves in Chauka the name of the dreaded solitary confinement unit within the detention centre was originally the name of a beautiful bird and symbol of the Manus Island By interweaving dialogue with two Manusian men and shots of daily life on the island the film gives a muchneeded voice to Manus inhabitants understandably distressed by the current situation With marked restraint the film exposes lives broken by shocking immigration policies