The Mind Game (2023)
Exclusive preview online screening of the sequel to the excellent Shadow Game!
The Mind Game (2023)
Directed by Sajid Khan Nasiri, Els van Driel, Eefje Blankevoort (61 mins)
When he was just 15, Sajid Khan Nasiri (known as SK) fled Afghanistan alone. After a two-year journey filled with danger and hardships – minutely documented on his phone camera – he arrives in Belgium to seek asylum. There, a whole new struggle begins.
They call it ‘the game’: the life-threatening journey that thousands of unaccompanied minors undertake every year seeking protection in Western Europe. For SK, the game started after the Taliban killed his father. Via Iran and Turkey to Eastern Europe he progressed ever closer to his destination, hunted down by violent border police and hostile civilians. In clips recorded with his telephone camera, and in messages to filmmakers Eefje Blankevoort and Els van Driel, he keeps track of his progress.
SK has faith that once he gets to Europe, he’ll be able to settle, go to school, start a new life. But when he arrives in Belgium to seek asylum, a new game begins - 'the 'mind game'.
As a child, how do you deal with the enormous mental pressure of the journey, with distrustful authorities, and disturbing messages from the home front?
The Mind Game is an intimate sequel to the award-winning Shadow Game (UK Premiere GHFF2021) - and a powerful account of the psychological pressures young refugees face.
We are delighted and honoured to host an exclusive online preview screening of The Mind Game on Friday 23 June, to mark Refugee Week 2023.
Panel discussion
Co-director Els van Driel
Main protagonist SK Nasiri
Sheila Melzak, Director and Consultant Child and Adolescent Psychotherapist at the Baobab Centre for Young Survivors in Exile, a UK NGO and therapeutic community that enables child and adolescent asylum seekers who have experienced organized violence, violation, exploitation, threats, rejection, loss and bereavement in their home communities and on their journeys into exile to thrive in the UK.
Dr Apostolos Veizis, Executive Director of INTERSOS Hellas, a Greek NGO providing assistance to people in need - including a pioneering programme that offers comprehensive support to unaccompanied minors in Greece who live in precarious or homeless conditions
Refugee and migrant health video-on-demand (VOD) collection
For Refugee Week (19-25 June) - and to complement our exclusive preview screening of The Mind Game, we are putting together a VOD collection of some of the best refugee and migrant health films that we have featured through the years.
The collection includes:
| Title | GHFF edition | Theme |
| Forged | December 2021 | Refugee and migrant health and rights; undocumented Syrian refugees in Turkey |
| On The Line | November 2021 | Refugee and migrant health and rights; life in limbo on the US/Mexican border |
| Past Journeys, Future Dreams | November 2021 | A poetic short film by six teenagers from asylum-seeking families in the UK, giving insight into their personal journeys and future aspirations |
| Shadow Game | November 2021 | Refugee and migrant health and rights; unaccompanied minors crossing Europe |
| Ushiku | November 2021 | Refugee and migrant health and rights; life in a detention centre in Japan |
| Shanti Khana | December 2018 | Refugee and migrant health and rights; life in a Rohingha refugee camp in Cox's Bazaar, Bangladesh |
VOD passes on sale now
A pass for the full collection costs £24.99 and a three-ticket pass costs £12.99
As with all our online content, this VOD collection is available free of charge for Global Health Film members.
