Abstract

My Share of the Sky speaks like a poem. A poem of love, of life, and of loss. It is a story of finding refuge and freedom in a foreign land and reconciling with the longing for loved ones back home. Presented as an audio diary, Sheida Jahanbin invites listeners into her world as she and her husband Madyar make a new life for themselves in Oslo, Norway as political refugees from Iran. The program presents a stream of live happening moments which intimately capture Sheida's life as it is unfolding. Juxtaposing the mundane and the terrifying, the ordinary and the extraordinary, the program gives full expression to the range of experiences of a refugee’s life. There is the constant grappling with not only the simple and menial things such as a blocked drainpipe but the ongoing attachment to the politics back home and the loved ones who remain there. The program's fragmented structure gives expression to this tension by drawing on the range of experiences Sheida and Madyar have during their first months of settling into a new life. This acute insight into her own personal experience as a refugee, alongside her husband, is what makes this program both enthralling and harrowing. Produced by Sheida Jahanbin and Rikke Houd, My Share of the Sky secured third place in Prix Europa 2012.

Keywords: asylum seekers, refugees, documentary, Iran, Norway, audio diary

How to Cite:

Thomas, H., (2014) “My Share of the Sky: Review 1”, RadioDoc Review 1(2). doi: https://doi.org/10.14453/rdr.v1i2.8