In 2015, the Taliban put out an order for the death of Afghan director Hassan Fazili, so the filmmaker and his wife gathered their family, including their young children, and fled the country to seek asylum in the European Union. That’s the harrowing premise for the upcoming documentary Midnight Traveler, which Fazili filmed on three phone cameras, in hiding in the mountains and across borders, to offer a disarmingly personal and intimate, up-close perspective on the sprawling global refugee crisis. The film made our “15 Movies We Loved at Sundance” list back in February, with Vulture critic Bilge Ebiri noting: “Fazili goes beyond merely portraying a humanitarian calamity. He’s made a film about what it means to be a father and husband — and, beyond that, what it means to be a family — while everything around you is being taken away.” (It also won the festival’s Documentary Special Jury award.) The trailer balances these small moments of family and fatherhood with on-the-ground footage of their escape from violence. The full film will be released in New York on September 18 and Los Angeles on October 4.
Watch the Trailer for Sundance Stand-Out Refugee Documentary Midnight Traveler
