Stateless - a film review

I just finished the sixth and final episode of Stateless, a new Netflix release of an Australian TV drama series made in 2020. I'd like to move on to other things, but I am too blown away by the story to do that just yet. It's a very powerful look at the plight of but a small handful of the world's 26 million refugees at latest count.

It is not an easy watch, and if you're the type who turns off the news when it comes to what's happening currently in Ukraine, or turns away from the debates surrounding government policies on dealing with Covid, this is probably not something you'll want to put yourself through. But it's based on a true story and if you see yourself as an informed citizen, it wouldn't hurt to have a look. You should also watch it to show respect for powerful story-telling.

There's a huge problem with the series, as far as I'm concerned. Instead of dealing with the problems refugees are faced with, the story centers on a mentally-ill Australian woman who got mixed in with the refugees and spent ten months in what is supposed to be a temporary detention center, but is for all intents and purposes a prison, where people fleeing rape, murder, starvation and all kinds of other human misery end up becoming abused by people who we put in place to provide them with shelter.

In the American context, immigration is said to involve the most convoluted set of inadequate bureaucratic policies, second only to the Treasury Department's Internal Revenue Service. If this film is any indication, Australia plays in the same ballpark.

Another thing that bugged me was the title. Most of the characters are not "stateless;" they are refugees running from failed states that the countries they try to get into often want to send them back to. They have passports.  But that's nit-picking. Sorry.

I remember discussing the film version of Alan Paton's magnificent novel of apartheid South Africa, Cry the Beloved Country, when it came out back in the 1950s. It was the first time I became aware that white people, when they tell the story of black people, usually prefer to have a white hero coming to their aid. I thought of that while watching Statehood. How much easier it is for white Australians to relate to one of their own kind being caught up in injustice and bumbling government policy than third world figures. I am less adamant these days that the goal in story telling should be perfect balance. I'm ready to accept that anybody trying to call attention to a social or cultural problem probably needs to get the largest possible audience any way they can. But it is nonetheless disappointing that so many of the refugees' stories didn't get told at all because so much time was taken up with the story of an unfortunate local girl.

It isn't just about her, though. Also central to the story is the fate of an Afghan family. I won't give spoilers here. I'll just say if the story doesn't move you, you need a heart transplant.

Six episodes. Spotty in parts. Frustrating and infuriating, especially having to watch the kind of people who often get hired to work as guards who really ought not be allowed to leave their front door.

Definitely a film of great value. Cate Blanchett plays a minor role. Evidently she lent her fame to the undertaking out of a strong personal interest in the plight of refugees in Australia. For which she deserves our gratitude.

Don't expect to find solutions. The question of what to do about the fact that millions of people want to leave unbearably awful places when the places they go to don't have room for them, or can at least make pretty convincing arguments for why that is so, is one of the great human vexations of the age we live in.

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