Human Flow

More than 65 million people around the world have been forced from their homes to escape famine, climate change or war. In his documentary Human Flow, Chinese artist Ai Weiwei attempts to give a visual expression of this human migration. An epic documentation of the refugee crisis, the film combines Ai's personal journey to 23 countries, with personal meetings with people who have fled or who try to assist others, as well as powerful images that capture the scale of the crisis. Thus the film actually manages to bring new perspective to events that have been documented in countless other films.

Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Italy, France, Germany, Turkey, Greece, Kenya, Mexico, Syria and Iraq are only some of the countries visited in the film. Combining massive and frightening images with urgent human stories, Ai Weiwei effortlessly manages to provide a political comment as well as a deeply humanistic message: In this time of uncertainty, we need more tolerance, compassion and trust for each other since we are all one. Otherwise, humanity will face an even bigger crisis, Ai has said about his own film.

Human Flow participated in the main competition at the Venice film festival this fall, where it was given four awards. The film has been screened at several festivals after that, including in Toronto, and has been met with critical acclaim. Truls Foss

Ai Weiwei (b. 1957) from China is considerd one of the world's leading contemporary artists, and is also an activist and a prolific filmmaker. Due to the political nature of his art and his direct criticism of Chinese authorities, he was arrested and put in custody in 2011, but has later been released. His most well-known works include Study of Perspective Tiananmen Square (1995), Ton of Tea (2008) og Sunflower Seeds (2010).