Community Heroes: Muhammad Munir by Pedro Serrazina

This is the second of three animation documentaries for the ReThink EU-sponsored project against discrimination that Portuguese animation filmmaker Pedro Serrazina (Tale About the Cat and the Moon) has directed.

The campaign aims to show how civic engagement provides resilience mechanisms, such as a sense of community and identity, to more vulnerable youth within the Muslim community. The shorts are based on conversations held with children about their own experiences.

Muhammad is 13 years old and lives in Amadora, Lisbon. He likes to watch airplanes with his dad. He likes maths, English language and playing games with his friends. At school, he gets along with everyone, but sometimes there can be unexpected "little jokes" - Film Synopsis

It has been a strange coincidence, and it feels particularly relevant, to be dealing with issues of exclusion at a time when we are all in social isolation due to a virus which, sadly, will increase extreme social inequalities - Pedro Serrazina

Watch Community Heroes: Muhammad Munir

Film Review (Vassilis Kroustallis):

The film's episodic nature is well-suited by its collage aesthetics, and those little pieces of hands, mouths, and food could tell their own story, but here they are used as fragments of a life. Community Heroes: Muhammad Munir goes for the ordinary instead of the dramatic (even in Muhammad's own narration and the way he describes unkind incidents); a film that evokes sympathy within its total duration of screening time, it makes you think that even a family bonding takes some effort -let alone a more extended community, cultural feeling of belonging.

• Pedro Serrazina Vimeo Page