Open Eye – THE OTHER (side of Sweden) – photofilm
Written by duckrabbit‘When people see me they see a criminal Arab guy, that’s the first thing they get in their head. I wake up every day after two o’clock. Go out at three. Three hours later the sun is down. It’s a disgusting feeling. I don’t do anything, I don’t make my parents proud … I always walk around with a bad feeling … It’s painful.’
Nineteen year old Iraqi Noor, talking to Joseph Rodriguez about his life dealing hash on the streets of Malmo.
This week on OPEN EYE (a duckrabbit/bbc series on the BBC) the acclaimed photographer Joseph Rodriguez turned his lens on a group of young Muslims growing up in the city of Malmo, Sweden.
Malmo is a city increasingly divided on racial, religious and cultural grounds, and one in which Joseph discovers many young Muslims feel they are treated as second class citizens.
In three visits to Malmo Joseph has been documenting what it means to grow up as ‘ the other’ in areas of Malmo that many Swedes (wrongly) think are too dangerous to visit.
The BBC copy of the photofilm is embeddable, so can be shared, but the BBC went a bit heavy on the compression so please take time to watch the quality version above. As ever we appreciate your comments, tweets and Facebook shares.
You can watch the photofilm on the BBC website here and listen to the documentary here.
Author — duckrabbit
duckrabbit is a production company formed by radio producer/journalist Benjamin Chesterton and photographer David White. We specialize in digital storytelling.
Discussion (4 Comments)
Excellent from start to finish. Pretty damn timely, too. I especially like Rodriguez’s voice (it is Rodriguez?) interacting with the subjects.
Very glad to see it on the BBC website. The potential audience is huge.
HI John,
thanks for your comment. Means a lot. Sadly the promotion of this got lost in the crisis that just hit the World Service, which means whilst the doco had a massive audience, the film will not have been seen by as many as we hoped.
Yes it is Joseph who was a wonderful presenter. I think the radio doc offers more than the photofilm, although quite a few people have commented that is is duckrabbit’s best work to date.
Having covered quite a lot of issues to do with Islam whilst at the BBC I think its a topic that they struggle with. What’s important about this doco is that its not focused on radicalization but on disenfranchised youth.
If you’re Swedish its a depressing listen. But we have have same problems in the UK and in much of Europe.
Great story, should be told more. Convincingly told by Joseph Rodriguez, who probably know a thing or two about being The Other. Big respect.
Thanks Sojourneposse … you’re right. There is a massive gap in the story told about young Muslims. They are either raping young white girls or planning terror plots, but rarely anything else. Sad.