A Broken House is a short documentary by Emmy Award-winning documentary director Jimmy Goldblum. He is no stranger to tackling human displacement and loss. In 2014, his documentary Tomorrow We Disappear told of the Kathputli Colony in New Delhi made up of magicians, puppeteers, and circus performers whose future as a community is under threat from the government’s slum clearance plans.
In ‘A Broken House’, he tells the story of Mohamad Hafez, whose circumstances lead to him being isolated from his family and home in Syria. A skilled architectural model-maker, he was granted a single-entry visa to the US, which means that if he does visit home, he will not be allowed back into the US, where he now makes a living.
Missing his home, he describes that feeling of loss using the Welsh word Hiareth as he conjures his home from memory in the miniature models he makes. As he works, he watches the Arab world blow up through the news, that destruction is at the forefront of his work. It’s a telling story that not only focuses on the destruction and displacement of communities ravaged by war but also the personal hurt and longing that come from the loss of home. It also highlights how the western world is often ignorant of the real lives these people once had – what could have been—a film about loss and love, responsibility and identity.