Our Bright Stars

The film is dedicated to the people of South Sudan who want to live free of fear in their country, where peace and stability prevail despite massive challenges.
Our Bright Stars documentary explores a new nation in peace in which all South Sudanese could see themselves represented.
South Sudan became the world's newest country as it broke away from the north and declared itself the Republic of South Sudan in July 2011. The dream of independence became a reality. Now come the challenges of building a nation from scratch.
Our Bright Stars is an intimate and emotional documentary on how South Sudanese see themselves as citizens and how they hope to begin constructing a new sense of national identity and nationhood.
The film shows South Sudanese expectations of the new nation and how they intend to contribute to the process of nation-building. This documentary is specifically dedicated to those individuals called Returnees, Refugees and Internationally Displaced People, who start a new life for a second time.
We want to understand the motivations and the reasons for coming back after more than twenty years of exile. We want to listen and to report about the circumstances encountered during a long journey back home.
Some came back on their own initiative, driven by a strong feeling of coming back to their roots, but the majority of Returnees were forced to leave Sudan.
In June 2012 he United Nations refugee agency (UNHCR) expressed concern over the massive influx of Sudanese refugees into South Sudan from Blue Nile State, saying the numbers of those crossing the border have reached 500 000 in the last 6 months. The majority of these refugees are said to be originating from the Central African Republic (CAR), Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Ethiopia and Sudan.

The main objective of the film is to understand and to assess the conditions in which these people live, through their voices. We want to know about their feelings, emotions, expectations, and frustrations after re-settling.
Our characters talk openly about the process of building a new home, a new identity and what are the new challenges they are facing.
The film visits transit camps and areas of returnees, refugees and IDPs, private homes, Youth Centre's, in three different states of South Sudan.
Our Bright Stars not only gives an insight into the people of South Sudan, but also a visual showcase for South Sudan's cultural diversity, through sport, music and drama.
The audience will experience a moving visual journey revealed through a collection of interviews and general shoots in the country. The film is designed for those wishing to understand the country, for both South Sudanese and international audience.