Watch Island of the Hungry Ghosts

Island of the Hungry Ghosts is a mesmerizing, thought-provoking documentary film that explores the hauntingly beautiful Christmas Island, a remote place that is both a tropical paradise and a site of great tragedy. Directed by Gabrielle Brady, the film takes the viewers on a journey through the island, giving them glimpses into its past and present.

The film is divided into two interconnected story lines. The first one focuses on the island's unique natural beauty, its diverse wildlife, and its astonishingly rugged landscape. The filmmaker captures the island's scenic vistas with breathtaking camera work, sweeping shots of lush forests and stunning seascapes that showcase the island's prismatic beauty at the same time as highlighting its remote and isolating atmosphere. The magnificent footage of the island's nature almost gets us lost in its beauty as if we are transported into a world far from reality.

The second story line of the film deals with the Refugee detention center situated on the island. The centre accommodates a group of asylum seekers and refugees who have been detained indefinitely on the island, by the Australian government. The filmmaker introduces us to Poh Lin, a traumatologist and counselor who works with the detainees, whom she encounters regularly. Poh Lin is the anchor of the documentary, and the camera follows her as she goes about her work, meeting the detainees and providing them with therapy sessions, trying to help them cope with their trauma and pain.

As Poh Lin goes through her daily routine at the detention center, she interacts with the detainees, who share their stories about their journeys, the hardships they have faced, and the unimaginable horrors they have endured. By sharing their experiences, they attempt to create a sense of humanity in the eyes of detention centre workers and the Australian public. We empathize with them and wonder how an island that looks like paradise has become a prison for refugees.

The film also explores the annual migration of the red crabs, a species unique to the island. Every year during the Christmas Island migration, thousands of red crabs cross the island, moving from the forest to the shores to mate and lay eggs. As an essential part of the island's ecosystem, these crabs represent life and hope. The footage of the red crabs is visually stunning and is juxtaposed with the stories of the detainees and the trauma they have endured, creating a tension and contrast that is both profound and tragic.

The documentary highlights the intersection of the island's natural beauty, the detention center, and the red crabs' migration. These three seemingly unrelated worlds magically merge, creating a thought-provoking perspective about the island's spiritual wilderness. It forces us to question the ethics of how we treat and protect the environment and those who share it with us.

In brief, Island of the Hungry Ghosts is a beautifully crafted documentary that raises important questions about the intersection of nature, people, and politics. The film is a meditation on human suffering, resilience, and hope, and a powerful plea for empathy and compassion towards the refugees who have suffered and are still suffering. The film is a potent reminder that behind every issue, there are people whose lives are intertwined, and it challenges us to see the world not only from our perspectives but also to consider the perspectives of others.

Overall, Island of the Hungry Ghosts is a poignant, heart-wrenching, and emotionally captivating documentary. The film poses the questions of who we are as individuals and societies, and how we respond to those who are different from us. The filmmakers have done a phenomenal job in telling the stories of the people who live, work, and suffer on this island, creating a profoundly moving, and thought-provoking story about humanity, courage, and sacrifice. If you want to watch a documentary that challenges how you see the world, and provides a glimpse of deeper insight and perspective about the world we live in, then you should watch Island of the Hungry Ghosts.

Island of the Hungry Ghosts is a 2018 documentary with a runtime of 94 hours. It has received mostly positive reviews from critics and viewers, who have given it an IMDb score of 6.8 and a MetaScore of 77.