I Want to Live

Like the main character in this film, I was also born with thalassemia, a blood disorder which requires transfusions every other week to keep me healthy and alive. When I get transfused, the whole process takes seven or eight hours, which means I have to do a lot of "working around" to fit it in my schedule. Also, on transfusion days, I am given several pre-meds which cause me to become very drowsy and keep me from eating properly or functioning for basically an entire day. There are a lot of complications associated with thalassemia, especially transfusion-related iron overload which requires a daily drug treatment, and sometimes it can be scary knowing that excess iron will damage my heart and liver if I can't get it out. But thanks to the expert care I receive from experienced and knowledgeable doctors, I am able to lead a fulfilling and rewarding life.

A sad but hopeful film. Sad because of the kids losing his life slowly in a refugee camps with the world ignoring him, but hopeful because the kid is full of hope, full of life and desire to life. Despite his hardship and his sickness, he is full of life.

Be warned, much of the footage is shot on location, very realistic, not your Disney type films, it show the daily life and struggle of a little boy who is a Refugee and also sick. If the world understands what's happened over there, we might be a little more compassionate for the people who suffered through this, especially the children. There's still time left to do something, something for the children and their cries for help.

If you watch the news on daily basis, I'm sure you will see some news about the Kurdish people and their fight against ISIS, there are also many documentaries on the subject, and I have seen many of them, but I have noticed many of these documentaries only give the big picture, they talk about the politic, give number, geographical location, etc. What i loved about this documentary and found it so interesting is how the director take the viewer inside the refugees camp, give a glimpse of what is like to be a refugee, to be a Kurdish refugee, and more than a politic, the film is about the daily life of refugees, their need which are simple, but they are incapable of having, the boy is sick and want to be cured, but the problem is he cannot find treatment where he is, his need is to have a good health, a house, a roof over his head, protected from the heat and from the cold, simple needs. While watching the films I was reminded of the great Italian Neo-realism cinema of 40s and 50s, it is realistic and poetic at the same time.

This film was shown at the Anthology Film Archives here in New York presented by Jonas Mekas himself, fore more than 1 hour and 40 minutes everyone in the theater was quite, what is great and beautiful about this film is the simplicity of it, the composition of the shot are beautiful, the camera never move, except when it is inside a car or a motorcycle, the sound is very rich, and pace is slow, the filmmaker show the films as if from the POV of a refuge in the camp seeing everything, because of that everything is presented as it is, the editing, use of Music and the voice over are simple and not intended for manipulation, just 1 hour and 40 minute in the live of a little boy who only has one wish and that is to live as the title suggest, rather a simple wish, but hard for him because he is sick and must get treatment before it is too late.