Filmmaker Statement

This is a short film about coming home. Najaf Ali fled Afghanistan in August 2021, when the Taliban took over his home of Kabul. We met just days after his evacuation. I was working as a humanitarian responder with the International Rescue Committee in Fort Bliss, Texas, where Ali was sent after entering the U.S. on humanitarian parole. We bonded on my lunch break over a shared passion for film and a determination to tell his family's story. Ali's family's service in the U.S. military during the war had put them on the Taliban death list. We share this story to raise awareness for families, like Ali's, who still fight for reunification and pay testament to those who were left behind in Afghanistan at the close of the war. We hope this film offers a window into his family's experience and experiences of refugees from all over the world who have had to leave their homes behind. Today, Ali continues to wait in hope of asylum status and a permanent future in the U.S.