Chasing Freedom

Chasing Freedom couldn't have been better named. The story is about a woman from Afghanistan who fled the oppression of the Taliban, seeking a life of freedom in America. Layla Alizada plays Meena, a woman forced to leave college when the Taliban take over. Neighborhood women come to her, looking for a teacher to help them learn how to read and write. When the Taliban learn of this, Meena is beaten and her brother thrown in jail for allowing females in his home for the purposes of education. When the Taliban decides they want more from Meena she decides to try and escape. With all the checkpoints she must pass, she destroys her identity papers and escapes to America. Once in America Meena finds out it isn't that easy gaining freedom in America if you can't prove who you are. This movie based on true facts shows the due process one must go through when coming to America and how the government agencies protect the homeland yet allow the oppressed a chance at life. This movie is very well done. For those who care about people, prepare to feel anger and tears. This movie will grip your heart and move you in ways other movies only dream of.

I agree with the poster below that the INS makes the decisions that it needs to make based on the facts presented, and that in the movie, the asylum-seeking process is made much more difficult for the main character because of the fact that she'd disposed of her identification papers back in Afghanistan. However, I don't think this weakens the movie at all. I think it added an important dimension to it by showing that the asylum-seeking process is difficult, even for people who are deserving of asylum, because it's necessary to weed out terrorists and other potential bad apples. The movie didn't come across to me as liberally biased at all.

I agree that Lewis' character was a little over the top, but overall I thought the movie was very well done.

This movie was a pretty good watch. Having been in Afghanistan, and Iraq this movie brought the situation out loud and clear to my wife. She needed to see this. The movie does seek show sympathy with the persons seeking asylum and doesn't show the INS in a good light. But, the process was and is necessary. I didn't see them as evil, I would have done the same.

Look at the movie for what it was intended, a drama, and don't take it as an affront to our immigration system. If you do, you will like it.

This taut and important film CHASING FREEDOM was apparently a made for television film in 2004. It is a shame it never made it into the theaters as it is a searing document about the problems of victims from foreign countries seeking asylum in the United States. The script by Barbara Samuels is a brave indictment against the Taliban's activities in Afghanistan as well as a penetrating examination of US bureaucratic bungling in dealing with those who get caught up in the quagmire of red tape in trying to find an escape hatch from their homeland cruelty. It is an honest look at a problem, unbiased, where none of the parties are blameless.

A member of a high profile New York law firm, Libby (Juliette Lewis) is told by her boss that despite her overtaxed workload as a securities lawyer she must by contract take on some pro bono work (as much to make her boss look good as to keep a law firm's reputation spotless). Libby begrudgingly takes on a pro bono case in the department closest to her office - the INS where kind and desperate Eric (Brian Markinson) pleads with her to represent a woman seeking asylum. Libby has a negative attitude toward the process, as much because she knows nothing about asylum cases in law as the fact that she is doing this under duress. Eric introduces her to her client Meena (Layla Alizada) who has fled Afghanistan to escape death because she dared to teach children in Kabul despite the Taliban's condemnation of schools. Gradually the harden Libby discovers the life story of Meena and softens to her cause, devoting herself to achieving the impossible - obtaining asylum for a woman who has no proof of identity and is 'detained' in a brusque INS center like a prisoner.

Though Meena arrived in the US in 2000, by the time her case is extended it is 2001 - and 9/11 has happened, an incident that placed Afghanistan in a bad light. The manner in which Libby works with Meena to gain her flight to freedom is a well-paced, gripping, startling tale - and this is based on a true story.

Juliette Lewis again demonstrates the scope of her talent by convincingly transforming the hard, workaholic lawyer into the compassionate believer in human rights and she is able to make this character development with being cloying or stereotyped. It is a fine performance in a role not of the usual Lewis type. Equally excellent is Layla Alizada, wholly believable as a woman who has endured atrocities only to enter a land that seems cold to her plea for asylum. The two actresses make a fine team. The remainder of the cast is superb and the direction by Don McBrearty is on target. There is a hauntingly beautiful music score by Jonathan Goldsmith the weaves Middle Eastern and Western music into a lush, additive and atmospheric score. This film deserves attention, especially today when our borders are even more blockaded. It is wise to remember the individuals caught up in the problem of seeking asylum. Grady Harp

Libby (Juliette Lewis) is a busy corporate lawyer forced to take on more pro bono hours. She reluctantly takes on an asylum seeking Afghan woman.

Layla Alizada plays the refugee Meena who arrives pre 9-11. Then 9-11 happens. Juliette Lewis is now a veteran actress, and does a good job as the uncaring lawyer who grow to fight for this case.

This is a lower budget TV movie. It gets a bit slow at times. There is some good insightful look at Taliban regime, and the difficulties of the asylum system. It's nice to see Juliette Lewis doing good work, and not just the usual flaky characters.