UConn wil be kicking off its annual Human Rights Film series next week! 

The first film is Goodbye, Hungaria, directed by Jon Nealon, which will be shown on Tuesday, September 18, 2007 at 6 PM in Konover Auditorium at the Thomas J. Dodd Research Center.  Director Jon Nealon will join us for a discussion and reception after the film. 

“Both political tale and love story, Goodbye Hungaria begins in a refugee camp in Hungary, home to hundreds of men, women and children fleeing war and oppression from every corner of the globe. To the refugees, Eastern Hungary is a cold and unwelcoming place; Asylum is rarely granted, and there are few opportunities for work.  For most, the only way out of this legal limbo is through a thriving underground smuggling ring. Jon Nealon’s cinema verité documentary chronicles the lives of Abed Al-Sahli a Palestinian refugee who acts as advocate and de facto translator for the camp’s Arab population, and Charu Newhouse, an American volunteer. As both Abed and Charu struggle to make life better for the refugees caught in red tape and subject to the vagaries of international politics, their fates become connected. The film traces their unlikely love story from the hopelessness of the camp to a dramatic arrival in New York City where they come to start a new life, together.”

For more information about the film series and other human rights events at UConn, go to http://www.humanrights.uconn.edu