The Mind Game (2023) | Global Health Film

The Mind Game (2023)

Directed by Sajid Khan Nasiri, Els van Driel, Eefje Blankevoort (61 mins)

When he was just 15, Sajid Khan Nasiri (known as SK) fled Afghanistan alone. After a two-year journey filled with danger and hardships – minutely documented on his phone camera – he arrives in Belgium to seek asylum. There, a whole new struggle begins.

They call it ‘the game’: the life-threatening journey that thousands of unaccompanied minors undertake every year seeking protection in Western Europe. For SK, the game started after the Taliban killed his father. Via Iran and Turkey to Eastern Europe he progressed ever closer to his destination, hunted down by violent border police and hostile civilians. In clips recorded with his telephone camera, and in messages to filmmakers Eefje Blankevoort and Els van Driel, he keeps track of his progress.
 
SK has faith that once he gets to Europe, he’ll be able to settle, go to school, start a new life. But when he arrives in Belgium to seek asylum, a new game begins - 'the 'mind game'. 

As a child, how do you deal with the enormous mental pressure of the journey, with distrustful authorities, and disturbing messages from the home front? 

The Mind Game is an intimate sequel to the award-winning Shadow Game (UK Premiere GHFF2021) - and a powerful account of the psychological pressures young refugees face. 

We are delighted and honoured to host an exclusive online preview screening of The Mind Game on Friday 23 June, to mark Refugee Week 2023. 

Panel discussion

Co-director Els van Driel

Main protagonist SK Nasiri

Sheila Melzak, Director and Consultant Child and Adolescent Psychotherapist at the Baobab Centre for Young Survivors in Exile, a UK NGO and therapeutic community that enables child and adolescent asylum seekers who have experienced organized violence, violation, exploitation, threats, rejection, loss and bereavement in their home communities and on their journeys into exile to thrive in the UK.

Dr Apostolos Veizis, Executive Director of INTERSOS Hellas, a Greek NGO providing assistance to people in need - including a pioneering programme that offers comprehensive support to unaccompanied minors in Greece who live in precarious or homeless conditions

Refugee and migrant health video-on-demand (VOD) collection

For Refugee Week (19-25 June)  - and to complement our exclusive preview screening of The Mind Game, we are putting together a VOD collection of some of the best refugee and migrant health films that we have featured through the years. 

The collection includes:

TitleGHFF editionTheme
ForgedDecember 2021Refugee and migrant health and rights; undocumented Syrian refugees in Turkey 
On The LineNovember 2021Refugee and migrant health and rights; life in limbo on the US/Mexican border
Past Journeys, Future DreamsNovember 2021A poetic short film by six teenagers from asylum-seeking families in the UK, giving insight into their personal journeys and future aspirations
Shadow GameNovember 2021Refugee and migrant health and rights; unaccompanied minors crossing Europe
UshikuNovember 2021Refugee and migrant health and rights; life in a detention centre in Japan
Shanti KhanaDecember 2018Refugee and migrant health and rights; life in a Rohingha refugee camp in Cox's Bazaar, Bangladesh


VOD passes on sale now

A pass for the full collection costs £24.99 and a three-ticket pass costs £12.99

Get your passes today!

As with all our online content, this VOD collection is available free of charge for Global Health Film members.

Find out more about Global Health Film membership here

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Global Health Film is registered in England and Wales under charity number 1179829 and company number 10436509. Registered address: 10 Queen Street Place, London, EC4R 1BE
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