9,000 miles. 3 families. 1 chance to escape.

Over the past decade, the European Union has been working in direct violation of international law to transform North African states into brutal holding cells for the millions of men, women, and children who flee violent conflict and extreme poverty across the African continent every year. But the human cost of the EU’s illicit policies has been hidden from view. Now, for the first time, THE BURNING will bring the untold story of Africa’s migrant and refugee crisis to life through the incredible journeys of three families that begin thousands of miles apart and intersect as they move closer to the promise of safety on European shores.

Over the past three years, Dr. Isabella Alexander-Nathani has journeyed over 9,000 miles with these three courageous families. Embedded in smuggling rings and secret brotherhoods, they have traveled across deserts and through war-torn cities to reach Libya, Algeria, and Morocco—home to the only European land border on the African continent. Together, the journeys of one young family fleeing extreme poverty and encroaching jihadist groups in Mali, one brotherhood of orphaned boys seeking to escape a future as child soldiers and save the younger siblings they left behind in West Africa, and one desperate father putting his life on the line to reunite with his wife and daughter who remain trapped in the Democratic Republic of the Congo invite audiences inside of the crisis like never before.

Learn more about this feature-length documentary film, show your support for the three families who courageously bring the untold story of Africa’s migrant and refugee crisis to life, and sign up learn about screenings in your community at www.smallworldfilms.org