Wandering a Rohingya Story – Inside the Kutupalong Refugee Camp

Official poster of the documentary film Wandering: A Rohingya Story showing a young boy standing on a dirt mound in the Kutupalong refugee camp in Bangladesh.
Wandering a Rohingya Story
Genre: Documentary
Year: 2020
Running time: 1 hour 28 minutes
Language: Rohingya with French subtitles
Subtitles available for screening: French, English, Spanish, German, Japanese, Italian, Taiwanese, Portuguese, Hungarian, Traditional Chinese

Synopsis


The documentary film Wandering: A Rohingya Story offers a poetic, immersive, and powerful perspective on the world’s largest refugee camp, the Kutupalong refugee camp. In 2017, over the course of just a few months, 700,000 people from the Rohingya Muslim minority fled Myanmar (formerly Burma) to escape genocide and seek asylum in Bangladesh. Between poetry and nightmares, food distribution and a game of soccer, the Rohingya of the Kutupalong camp bear witness to their daily lives and the ghosts of the past.

In collaboration with Rohingya refugee Abul Kalam, and inspired by the research and work of photographer Renaud Philippe, Wandering: A Rohingya Story is the first film to be made entirely in the Rohingya language, made possible in particular through the translation and narration of Rohingya refugee Mohammed Shofi.

Crew

With the invaluable participation of the refugees of the Kutupalong camp.

Written, directed, and produced by: Olivier Higgins and Mélanie Carrier
Inspired by the research and work of photographer Renaud Philippe
Poet and fixer: Abul Kalam
Director of Photography: Renaud Philippe and Olivier Higgins
Archival research: Olivier Higgins
Narration: Mohammed Shofi
Editing: Amélie Labrèche and Olivier Higgins
Image and sound post-production: MELS
Color grading: Jérôme Cloutier
Sound design: Pierre-Jules Audet
Mixing: Luc Boudrias

 

Awards and Recognition

Canadian Screen Awards laurels recognizing the film for Best Feature Documentary.
Canadian Screen Awards
Best Feature Documentary
Iris Awards laurels recognizing the film for Best Documentary, Best Editing, and Best Cinematography.
Iris Awards
Best Documentary, Best Editing, Best Cinematography
Global Docs Award laurels recognizing the film for Best Feature Documentary.
Global Docs
Best Feature Documentary Award
Festival Internacional de Cine Documental de Buenos Aires laurels recognizing the film with First Prize in the Human Rights Competition.
First Prize, Human Rights Competition
Festival Internacional de Cine Documental de Buenos Aires

Reviews

« A remarkable film. » « A work that is as sensitive as it is immersive. »
LE DEVOIR - FRANÇOIS LÉVESQUE
« A powerful illustration of the tragic consequences of genocide.» « A visually striking work.»
MEDIAFILM - CHARLES-HENRI RAMOND
« Wandering stands out from a crowded pack (documentaries about refugees), however, by striking tricky balances between individual and collective focus, and between presenting an aesthetic vision of its subject-matter rather than an aestheticised one. »
MODERN TIMES REVIEW
« The film’s cinematography is extraordinary throughout. » « Not only does the film avoid pathos and the pitfalls of exploiting suffering, it is instead imbued with a distinct poetry and a metaphysical atmosphere. »
LA PRESSE - ANDRÉ DUCHESNE
« A deeply moving immersion. »
JOURNAL DE QUÉBEC - CÉDRIC BÉLANGER
« Brave, relevant, and profoundly human. »
JOURNAL LE SOLEIL - ÉRIC MOREAULT
« A sublime documentary. »
LE DEVOIR - ODILE DUMAIS
« A remarkable documentary: realistic, sensitive, and deeply moving. »
DIARIO EL POPULAR - JORGE GUTMAN
« The film unfolds through a mature direction that succeeds in conveying the heavy burden of a humanity struggling with its own priorities. »
EL NORTE DE CASTILLA
« The feature-length film is filled with moments of great evocative power; these images linger in the memory and continue to resonate with viewers long after the screening. (…) Watching Wandering: A Rohingya Story becomes a true sensory experience, immersing audiences in a world of emotions and sensations. »
CINÉ-BULLES
« A high level of narrative language (…) Beyond the carefully crafted cinematography and editing, the film’s aesthetic structure is hypnotic and mesmerizing. »
BIAMAG
« Marked by a contagious humanism (…) the sensually evocative photographic and sound work crafted by the production also stands as a powerful testimony to the state of the world.»
PANORAMA CINEMA
Photo credits: Renaud Philippe

Partners

You could also like

Through an intimate documentary process spanning four years, this film observes childhood at eye level, within a family of filmmakers. Winner of the Jean-Marc-Vallée Award, it offers a thoughtful reflection on transmission, parenthood, and how we pass on our ways of seeing and telling the world to future generations.

Both poetic and immersive, this documentary takes viewers into the heart of the Kutupalong refugee camp in Bangladesh—the largest in the world—home to nearly one million Rohingya who fled genocide in Myanmar. Recognized by international critics, winner of the Canadian Screen Award for Best Feature Documentary and shortlisted to represent Canada at the Oscars, the film offers a human perspective on exile and dignity.

Now considered a landmark documentary in Quebec, this road movie takes viewers along the Côte-Nord, where encounters and dialogue offer an in-depth look at relationships between Indigenous and non-Indigenous peoples. Through its human and social perspective, Quebekoisie has helped reshape how identity and living together are understood in Quebec.

Encounters immerses us in a powerful journey where young Innu, Huron‑Wendat, and non‑Indigenous Quebecers travel 310 km along the ancestral Jesuit Trail. The documentary explores the deep symbolism of the land, questions of identity, and the evolving relationships between Indigenous and non‑Indigenous peoples in Quebec.