Rain in a Dry Land 2006
Distributed by Bullfrog Films, PO Box 149, Oley, PA 19547; 800-543-FROG (3764)
Produced by Anne Makepeace
Directed by Anne Makepeace
DVD, color, 82 min.
Sr. High - Adult
African Studies
Date Entered: 05/18/2007
Reviewed by Martha Kelehan, Binghamton UniversityRain in a Dry Land follows two Somali Bantu families on their journeys from a U.N. refugee camp in Kenya to their new lives in the United States. This strong documentary shares with viewers the challenges facing these two families as they struggle to make a new life for themselves in the United States.
Madina fled Somalia in 1991 with her husband, Aden and children after witnessing the death of her parents and being raped repeatedly by soldiers. After more than a decade in refugee camps in Kenya, Madina, Aden, and their seven children are selected to move to Springfield, MA. In Springfield, the family struggles financially to survive on government assistance, while Aden improves his English and Madina remains haunted by the past. The documentary follows the family for 18 months in the United States as they navigate the complicated bureaucracy of government assistance and struggle to adapt to their new surroundings.
The film also follows another woman and her family. When war came to Arbai’s village she was separated from much of her family, escaping to Kenya with just two of her daughters. She was reunited with her husband in Kenya, eventually having two more children with him before he deserted the family. Arbai and her four children are resettled in Atlanta, where tensions between Arbai and her 13 year old daughter Sahara run high, as Sahara tests her “American independence.”
Well-shot and tightly edited, the film provides an honest look at the myriad challenges facing these migrants, as they struggle to survive in the totally alien world of urban America.