Chauka, Please Tell Us The Time
2017•PG•1h 30m•6.8•Released
Documentary
An urgent and powerful documentary, shot in a detention centre where asylum seekers trying to reach Australian shores are indefinitely detained. Secretly shot on a mobile phone by Iranian journalist Behrouz Boochani while detained on Manus, in Papua New Guinea, the film is a collaboration with Dutch-Iranian filmmaker Arash Kamali Sarvestani. Boochani recounts, via the testimonies of fellow inmates, the abuse and violence inflicted and the precarious state of limbo they find themselves in. Chauka, the name of the dreaded solitary confinement unit within the detention centre, was originally the name of a beautiful bird and symbol of the Manus Island. By interweaving dialogue with two Manusian men and shots of daily life on the island, the film gives a much-needed voice to Manus inhabitants, understandably distressed by the current situation. With marked restraint, the film exposes lives broken by shocking immigration policies.
Director
Arash Kamali Sarvestani
Writer
Arash Kamali Sarvestani, Behrouz Boochani
Languages
English, Kurdish, Persian
Cast
Behrouz Boochani
Behrouz Boochani
Recommended
6.5
Heart of a Dog
2015
6.6
The September Issue
2009
7.5
The Crystal Calls - Making The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance
2019
8.3
Billie Eilish - Hit Me Hard and Soft: The Tour (Live in 3D)
2026
7.7
Elephant
2020
6.2
Naqoyqatsi
2002
7.3
Burma VJ: Reporting from a Closed Country
2008
7.7
Earth
2007
6.4
Ex Libris: The New York Public Library
2017
7.5
Guillermo del Toro's Pinocchio: Handcarved Cinema
2022
7.9
Alone in the Wilderness
2004
8.2
Baraka
1992
7.3
Titicut Follies
1967
7
Born to Be Wild
2011
7
Beyond Infinity: Buzz and the Journey to Lightyear
2022
7.2
180° South
2010
7.6
Cristiano Ronaldo: World at His Feet
2014
7.6
Our Planet: Behind the Scenes
2019
6.4
The Captains
2011
6.8
Embrace the Panda: Making Turning Red
2022
Similar Movies
Giscard et l'Europe : chronique d'un rêve inachevé
2025
Bruno & Bettina
2018
La astucia y la fuerza
2017
Carterland
2021
Shi'a Echoes from Lebanon
2007
8
RF
2004
Dinner with the President: A Nation's Journey
2007
Oona and Me
2005
Ministry of Truth
2007
7.1
Get Me Roger Stone
2017
A Tomato Tragedy
2023
8
Palavers - A Swiss Autumn Chronicle 1989
1990
4.8
La marche gaie
1980
6.5
Essere Rossana Rossanda
0
8.8
Citizen Krone, Austria between the Lines
2002
6.6
1974, une partie de campagne
2002
Split Screen
2022
6.9
Statues Also Die
1953
Någon annan betalar
2014
Dissection
2021