HOPE Documentary

Amal Basry watched The Titanic at a cinema in Baghdad the night before she fled Iraq. 18 months later the people smuggling boat she was on sank between Indonesia and Australia. 353 people drowned. Amal survived by clinging to the floating body of a dead woman for 22 hours. Now Amal fights to ensure that the disaster is not forgotten, reunite her family and 'find what it was I lost in the ocean'.

Four hundred asylum seekers were pitched into the sea when their 'people-smuggling' boat from Indonesia sank on its way to Australia in 2001. Three hundred and fifty three people drowned. Only seven survivors made it to Australia.

Amal Basry, who had fled Iraq, was one of those survivors. She spent 22 hours in the ocean hanging on to a floating corpse, convinced that her son was dead and she was the only person left alive.

Controversy surrounded the sinking of the boat, which became known as the SIEV X (Suspected Illegal Entry Vessel Unknown). In public, Amal became an advocate for the survivors. In private, she fought to reunite her fragmented family, cope with the personal consequences of the disaster and return to Indonesia to 'find what I lost in the ocean'.

Amal loved movies and had always dreamed of being in a film of her own. Documentary maker Steve Thomas wanted to record her life story. So they made a deal. And having embarked on this journey, they were determined to see it through to the end..

There are many twists and turns in the story as 'Hope' unfolds. We'd rather not give these away because we don't want to spoil the viewer's own journey.. Suffice to say that ultimately 'Hope' is an inspiring story.

A film that works on many levels, Hope is a universal tale of family, migration and the search for 'a better life'.