The ease with which two distinct topics have come to merge in the public mind has been a dependable source of angst for me over the last several months. Two of the most formative topics in contemporary Europe, no less. One of them is the series of horrendous terror attacks that have been petrifying us for last couple of years, the other being the refugee crisis spilling out of the conflict in Syria and Iraq. One of them is widely considered to be the worst humanitarian crisis of our time.

Utterly predictably, the situation has been a goldmine for political extremists. A mine wherein the rest of us happen to be the canaries. In a reality like that, every single percent of fearmongering Europeans fail to resist is estimated to bring more than one terrorist attack’s worth of misery upon them.

Thus, it is with the saddest kind of opportunism that I launch the film project (Courage!). A narrative short, it looks to take a deep dive into the psychology of the refugee crisis with the synopsis:

“An American relative pays a Christmas visit to her family in Europe at the heights of the refugee crisis.

Set around a lavish dinner table, the conversation starts to shift as fear keeps seeping in through the cracks of everyone’s own peculiar insecurity.

What happens to a person once angst has overcome all her surroundings?”

As of now I have a completed screenplay on my hand. Since my goal is both to give a new angle to the European audience as well as to bring the topic much closer to the U.S. public, I plan to submit the completed work to a string of film festivals.

Before I set out on finding a Producer, Cast and Crew, I would like to earn the support pledges of NGOs involved in alleviating the crisis. There are a number of amazing people out there who continue to hold out in giving their best to help some of the most desperate and vulnerable people today.

It is my firm belief that not only would the project benefit immensely from the professional auspices of Humanitarian Organizations, but in turn it could also further their cause and recognition.