Choose Love Presents Fearless Stories

23 June 2026

On a Thursday evening at Picturehouse Central, Screen One was filled with an audience gathered to watch a collection of films challenging division - a troubling trend increasingly politicised and normalised in today’s climate.

In a world where 122 million people are currently displaced - a number that is rising, not diminishing - it's easy to understand that's a shockingly large number but also easy to see it as just a number. Storytelling has the power to reach audiences minds and hearts in a way stats simply can't and Choose Love's Fearless Stories was a brilliantly curated exhibition of this.

In partnership with Rogue and Tarot Productions and to coincide with Refugee Week, moderator Emma Stevenson, Deputy CEO of Choose Love was clear from the outset that the four short films weren't selected for purely entertainment purposes. Driven by a genuine concern for refugees; the writers and directors behind these films have crafted stories that are authentic, ask questions and remind us of our shared humanity.

Throughout the screenings, the power of creativity shone through - and demonstrated that this issue can be expressed and shaped in countless ways. While a unifying theme ran beneath the surface, each film offered a distinct perspective on the refugee experience. Every director used their voice to draw out shared threads of humanity that audiences could recognise and connect with.

Director Elham Ehsas reflected that, despite the uncertainty facing Afghan women today, his aunts back home are among the funniest people he knows. As he put it: “Life goes on. Life finds a way.” His film 'Yellow' focuses on a quiet interaction between two young people as the female protagonist shops for a chador, the traditional dress worn by Afghan women. Its strength lies in its subtlety, capturing beauty in the smallest of moments and placing the repressive nature of the enforced clothing to become the elephant in the room that no one mentions.

Taking a very different approach, Olly Ginelli’s 'The Long Spring' exposes the brutal underworld of human trafficking that many refugees encounter. Inspired by his time volunteering in a refugee camp - where he met children forced to mature far beyond their years - the film centres on a young boy full of bravado, striving to be both older brother and protector in the most desperate of circumstances.

Poetry readings from Lemn Sissay provided a brief interlude between the films. He shared an anecdote about performing the same poems at a BNP conference - a booking they were obliged to make for diversity quota reasons, and for which he charged double his usual fee. It offered a welcome lighter moment, one that only made the darker moments from the films more apparent.

Lemn Sissay

Alexandra Wain’s 'In the Clouds', a beautifully crafted story told through a child’s perspective, brings attention to the hidden grief and trauma carried by so many refugees as they attempt to build a new life in unfamiliar surroundings. The result is a multi-layered film that is both delicate and profoundly moving.

The evening concluded with 'Rule, Britannia' directed by Max Fisher. Fisher and co-writer Ayman Alhussein openly shared that they had disagreed on how the film should end. The chosen conclusion felt far from a compromise; instead, it pointed to something more essential - that film should ask questions rather than provide easy answers.

Ultimately, the night served as a powerful reminder that behind the statistics are real people, each with lives and stories not so different from our own.

The event highlighted the remarkable work of Choose Love and all those involved in bringing these films to life. In a world where refugees are increasingly dehumanised - where their lives and deaths are too often reduced to statistics - there is a pressing need to challenge these narratives and shift public perception.