Molly & Mobarak

Structuring observational documentary footage into dramatic form, Zubrycki’s “verité-narrative” charts the relationship between Mobarak Tahir, a young Hazara man fleeing the Taliban who has been granted a Temporary Protection Visa, and Molly Rule, the daughter of one of Mobarak’s English teachers. Mostly shot by Zubrycki as a one-man-crew around the small town of Young, a four-hour drive from Sydney, the film is both an intimate account of how Australia’s bureaucratic systems treat refugees as second-class citizens, and an attempt to truthfully and humanistically portray a group of people heavily demonised by mainstream media. Efforts to prevent the film from screening to parliamentarians and their staff in Canberra shortly after the film’s release were ultimately defeated.