by Stacey Osbeck, Staff Writer

In early September 2020, fire broke out at the Moria refugee camp. Built to house about 3,000 displaced people, the old military base on the Greek island of Lesbos contained an estimated 20,000 when the inferno took hold. While many media outlets followed where the Syrians fled to, Danish documentary filmmaker Michael Graversen and journalist Florian Elabdi sought out what was left behind. In the ash and rubble of Moria they encountered Khalil and Ayham who scraped by, and even sent some money home, scavenging scrap metal and copper wiring. Strangers before the camp, a friendship formed between the two Syrians, with each referring to the other as brother. In them these documentarians found their story for the short Ghosts of Moria.  

MJ: Did you know you wanted to team up for a documentary and not know what the subject would be? Or did you always have your sights set on the refugee crisis?

Michael Graversen: I think we had different paths coming to the film. I’ve been coming to the refugee camp in Moria for the last five years. So I’ve been following the development in the camp. I’ve seen it grow over the years to the point that there were 20,000 people living there. And when it burned down I immediately called Florian.

Florian Elabdi: I remember standing on the football pitch that day Michael called. Moria camp in Greece had just burned down. And I didn’t hesitate to say yes when he asked if I wanted to join him because some of the best work I’ve ever done has been when people called me up spontaneously and asked if I wanted to go someplace where history is evolving.

MJ: Some parts are actually really fun to watch. They have this camaraderie and banter. But they’re in a dire situation that’s not sustainable. For the film, did you try to strike that balance or is that something that came out on its own?

M: I think it was something that we had an eye for. Their interactions were quite funny sometimes and I think dealing with such a heavy subject it’s important that you also have something that’s a bit lighter, something that you can identify with and relate to so you can come closer to the story and the characters.  

F: Khalil was really funny and Ayham was this more immature kind of, goofy sounds negative, but goofy also in a funny way. There was this big brother little brother relationship between them and there was a conscious choice to focus on that in the film. But it also came naturally because that was just the way they were. They were natural characters and their relationship was speaking for itself.  

MJ:  In that night scene with police, how were you allowed to film that and how often did that sort of thing happen?

M: We were not allowed to film that, so we filmed with a hidden camera at that point. I had the camera and Florian was like [whispering] remember to film, so we did. But there were a lot of police that would come in the broken down camp. As a cinematographer it was really challenging because you could not just set up your camera and do an interview.

MJ: What was the hardest part technically? You’re talking cinematography at night. What about power outlets for batteries? Did you need a translator there?  

M: It was a gigantic gift that Florian knows the language and culture and was really good at cultural mediating. Once we got close to the boys and were there with them, sometimes other journalists were also, you know, interested in them. The two immediately disregarded them because they felt there were just so many things that they did wrong when they approached them. Sometimes they would talk about alcohol and all of that and they were really not respectful.

F: My dad’s Moroccan so I understand the Arab culture. There’s this thing with Khalil and I that we are from the same tribe although he’s Syrian. That’s a long story. But I’m from a place in Morocco where we have Syrian ancestry. That was something we found out in the first few days and that’s something that kind of brought us together.  

MJ: How do you decide when to end a documentary, especially when the story is ongoing?

F: I think we both agree that’s because they departed from each other. And what was special about this story was their friendship. They were in these apocalyptic surroundings and they left the camp because of circumstances. While Ayham was forced to the new camp, Khalil was being deported to Athens. So they were split up and we wanted to keep one location in the documentary.  When they left that location they left the film you could say.

M: And that also had something to do with the camp had been stripped down completely so there was nothing left to live off. We end on this note of friendship because the camp was a big political story and everything, but we wanted to humanize it and convey that the feeling of friendship was so important. That other people, when you’re living under such dire conditions, are so important.  

​Ghosts of Moria is a 25 minute documentary short produced by The Guardian.  Look for it on streaming platforms December 2022.