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Teacher’s notes

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This clip briefly shows TAFE teacher Ann Bell with a group of male Afghan students, talking to an interviewer about their needs beyond those of language and literacy. She then meets John Walker, the Mayor of Young (a rural town in New South Wales). She explains to him the strategy for attaining permanent refugee status for a group of Hazara refugees from Afghanistan. This discussion with the Mayor is intercut with street shots of Young. One of the refugees, Mobarak Tahiri, the subject of the documentary, then talks to Lyn Rule, a woman who has befriended him, about how he has changed.

Educational value points

• The clip highlights the plight of asylum seekers. The Australian Refugee and Humanitarian Program officially offers protection to asylum seekers. However, community groups such as Amnesty Australia, Rural Australians for Refugees and a number of refugee action groups see the human cost of Australia’s policy of intercepting, detaining and returning failed asylum seekers as being too high.

• The Hazara is a little-known but much-persecuted group of refugees and the clip provides a glimpse into their story. The Hazara are a minority group in Afghanistan, and many fled the Taliban regime. Between 1999 and 2002, 3,457 Hazaras entered Australia and many have applied to remain to escape ethnic conflict in Afghanistan.

• The issue of identity is a major one confronting refugees. Mobarak’s need to fit into Australian society, to become an 'Aussie boy’, inevitably conflicts with the need to hold onto a sense of identity and of belonging to the groups and customs of his country of origin. To relinquish these entirely is to invite disorientation and a negation of personal history. Much is to be gained, but also to be lost in assimilation into a host culture.

• Molly and Mobarak exemplifies the genre of 'observational documentary’. This subgenre of documentary filmmaking is purported to be closer to reality, as it is unscripted, with action being dictated by the subjects rather than by any predetermined plot or staging of scenes. It is therefore more experimental and exploratory, as well as being more risky for the filmmaker, who must rely on choosing the right moments to film. This is a skill for which director Tom Zubrycki is acclaimed. Zubrycki, like other observational documentary makers, also eschews the use of reconstructions, working only with the real action taking place in front of the camera.

• Observational filmmakers often form close relationships with their subjects in the hope of filming scenes that would not otherwise be played out in front of an audience. Zubrycki stayed at the Rules’ house, giving him highly personal access to his subjects and allowing them to become used to the camera’s presence. This clip invites examination of the methods of observational documentary filmmaking.

• The footage offers a snapshot of an Australian country town and its inhabitants. Beneath the genial interactions of the women and the Mayor, there is a hint of the economic desperation experienced by many rural centres. When young people move to the city, country towns lose labour, and the speakers indicate that the economic argument will benefit their cause. However, it is not the economic imperative that drives Ann Bell and Lyn Rule. These country-town residents are shown to be kind hearted and sympathetic to the plight of the Hazara. Bell and Rule seek to help, giving voluntarily of their own time, opening their homes to strangers and fighting on their behalf, while also offering emotional support.

• Molly and Mobarak (2003) is a highly regarded Australian documentary. It had its international premiere in Toronto and opened the Margaret Mead Film and Video Festival in New York in the year of its release. It was also shown at the prestigious Joris Ivens competition for feature documentaries at IDFA (International Documentary Festival Amsterdam), the largest documentary festival in the world. Molly and Mobarak has received a considerable amount of media coverage and achieved fame for its creator, mainly because of its sensitivity to highly topical issues concerning refugees.

• The clip showcases the work of documentary filmmaker Tom Zubrycki. A respected and experienced filmmaker and producer, Zubrycki studied sociology at the University of New South Wales in the early 1970s. This informed his aim of using his skills to enlighten and provoke audiences, expose injustice and contribute to a common humanity. His films tend to follow social and political events as they unfold, as in this example. Zubrycki has a personal interest in the effects of displacement, as his own father escaped from Poland in 1939.

This clip starts approximately 1 hour 2 minutes into the documentary.

Ann Bell and another refugee supporter discuss the Hazara refugees who have moved to their town.
Ann Bell 18 months ago I had never heard of Hazara people and then when they started coming to TAFE, ‘Sure, it’s my job. I’ll do the best I can to organise lessons for you,’ but it’s turned into so much more than that. You know, because you can’t just think about the education and the literacy and language needs of a person when they’ve got so many other needs too in their lives, you know.
Woman I’d just be heartbroken, really, to think of them having to go back.
Ann I mean, gee, if they have to go, it’s going to make a big hole in my life, I know that.
Woman Oh, absolutely.

Ann and the other refugee supporter visit the Mayor to discuss the Hazara refugees.
Ann So we were talking to Jill last week. She said the argument that’s going to win here is the economic argument and if we can show that these guys are important to Young, to the regional development of Young, then we’ve got a fair chance of keeping them here. We’ve been trying to contact somebody who is working in the field of economics who would be in a position to do a study.
John Walker, Mayor of Young So it’s more economics than culture? These professionals that you’re talking about?
Ann Oh, definitely. Yes, definitely economics. That’s the angle that Jill said is going to work. That’s — I mean you can talk about humanitarian grounds and that for them staying but it’s — in the end it would be economics that will win, yeah.
John OK. I’m fully supportive or Council will be fully supportive on that because our philosophy is to fully support any business development in Young whatsoever and it’s certainly been a vital part…
Ann That’s right and Young is in a unique position here because I mean — well, because we’ve actually got this injection of people moving into the town where other towns are, you know, despairing for their future.

Lyn Rule, Mobarak’s friend, chats with Mobarak, a Hazara refugee, in her kitchen.
Lyn Rule So for you to stay here, you have to prove to the Australian Government it is too dangerous for you to go back.
Mobarak Yeah, I have to prove I can’t go back in Afghanistan because I change everything in Australia. Actually, like that — I change everything. Me not like before.
Lyn You’re a different person?
Mobarak Yeah.
Lyn When you came to Australia, did you think you would change?
Mobarak Yeah.
Lyn You did?
Mobarak I change.
Lyn Did you know you were going to change? Did you think, ‘Oh, when I get to Australia, it will be different.’
Mobarak Yeah.
Lyn Because a lot of Afghani people haven’t changed. They’re still the same.
Mobarak Yeah, many people same, like, Abdullah and others have not changed.
Lyn More people have not changed, that’s right.
Mobarak They do Ramadan, they do (inaudible), they do everything, yeah.
Lyn But not Mobarak.
Mobarak Not Mobarak.
Lyn He’s too much like Australian, like Australian boy.