Leitrim hurling veteran, Zak Moradi, will star in a new documentary about his journey fleeing war in his native Kurdistan and finding a new home in Leitrim. 

The documentary, which will be screened on the 22nd at the Glen Centre in Manorhamilton, shows Moradi’s emotional return to Kurdistan of Iraq, and the sprawling Al-Hash refugee camp he called home before moving to Leitrim.

“A lot of work went into it. Films are not easy, they might look easy when you are watching tv or a documentary but there was a lot of hard work that went into it,” Said Moradi who is excited for the film to be showcased in Leitrim. 

“I think people will really enjoy it, and the more people that know about it the better. They showed it in my own club Thomas Davis in Tallaght, and everyone loved it, and the same in Galway, it was a full house for about three days,” he said.

Born at the height of the Gulf war, Moradi and his family fled war when he was just 11 years of age, and came to Ireland as a “programme refugee” in 2002. 

“This film is just trying to tell a story about what a refugee goes through, it is about my story, and what I have gone through to get here, and what some refugees go through to get to a country. And why a lot of people don’t know what a refugee is, but when people watch this they will know what a refugee is,” said Moradi.

The idea for the film started when Declan Ryan, Co-founder of Ryanair, read Moradi’s memoir ‘Life Begins in Leitrim’ and decided that it should be turned into a documentary. ‘I felt like Declan put in a good shift (on the film), but he has also done so much work for refugees around Ireland, ' Moradi said.

Moradi is a keen activist himself, speaking up for refugee rights in the country: “I do my part in Ireland to speak up for the Kurdish people … I am always about people being treated equally. I know what it is like coming from Kurdistan, our people are treated differently, we have 40 or 50 million Kurds living in the middle-east and they are treated as second class citizens.”

He understands the difficulties that can come with refugees coming to the country with, for example housing, but he doesn't feel that the animosity to immigrants that has sprung up in Ireland in recent years is right.

“Irish people can’t really give out about refugees or immigrants because Irish people were probably the first refugees around the world in the eighteen hundreds. That's why there are Irish people everywhere”

Moradi himself had a very positive experience moving to Ireland and credits the life he has today to having played GAA; first with St Marys in Carrick-on-Shannon, and now with Thomas Davis in Tallaght, and with Leitrim for many years.

Sport’s ability bond people is a key part of the documentary.  “It’s also about sports and getting involved in sports and GAA. I’ve made so many friends over the years from sports. Sports brings people together, it doesn't matter what nationality they are,” he says. 

The film will be the finale of the Adaptation Film Weekend which will also showcase other items with a strong Leitrim interest: ‘That They May Face the Rising Sun’, the adaptation of John McGahern’s final novel and ‘Twig’, directed by Dromahair’s Marian Quinn.

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