The film ‘Shura’ reflects the immigration drama through the eyes of an 82-year-old volunteer

The human suffering behind the migration crisis, seen through the eyes of an 82-year-old woman who is dedicated to saving migrants crossing the Arizona desert, is reflected in the short film ‘Shura’, which offers a narrative far removed from rhetoric. hostility of some American politicians towards immigration.

The half-hour documentary tells the story of Shura Wallin, who for more than two decades has been walking large stretches of the Arizona-Mexico border daily, providing help to migrants crossing the border.

“I met Shura 14 years ago. Her enthusiasm, her determination, her perseverance and her Mother Teresa-like aura fascinated me from the beginning,” David Damián Figueroa, co-writer and director of the film along with Kayvon Derak Shanian, told EFE.

For Figueroa it was important to tell the story of this Anglo-Saxon woman, a black belt in karate. “I wanted to tell a story that is very different from what we hear in the news, that Americans hate migrants. “I wanted to show that many of the people who help migrants at the border are Anglo-Saxons, citizens of this country,” she explained.

The documentary shows a day in the life of Shura, who along with other volunteers walks through the desert shouting “We are friends, don’t be afraid, we have water and food.”

Shura’s work

Their efforts quickly bear fruit and soon a group of migrants appears, made up mainly of women and children, who receive a bag with food, water and juice from the hands of the old woman. The group includes a little girl, only five years old, who is traveling alone, without her parents or other relatives.

“It’s difficult, it’s incredible to see these types of cases,” Shura says to the camera, then takes the little girl and takes her by the hand and hands her over to Border Patrol agents.

The documentary began filming in December 2022, when the number of migrants crossing the border began to increase drastically.

Shura is a co-founder of the humanitarian group Green Valley Samaritans, who estimate that they have assisted nearly 20,000 migrants in the last two decades. Physically she is a small woman, but her steps are sure when she has to navigate difficult trails, where she frequently finds items left by migrants.

She tells how she sometimes uses her karate knowledge to teach some defense movements to migrant women, who are more at risk of falling into the hands of human traffickers.

Of life or death

Having access to clean water in the Arizona desert is a matter of life and death, which is why the Samaritans constantly place plastic jugs on routes used by migrants.

The woman has experienced firsthand the two sides of the immigration coin: the smile and satisfaction of saving a life, and on the other hand finding corpses of the less fortunate who paid the highest price for trying to reach the United States.

The Samaritans are constantly harassed by members of civil militias who “guard” the border and maintain the idea, encouraged by some politicians, that an “invasion” is occurring.

Figueroa, who frequently travels to the border and volunteers in shelters and soup kitchens for migrants, believes that there is only one word to describe what is currently being experienced in the region: “Suffering.”

“There is a lot of human suffering. It is indescribable to see so many people waiting for entire days, without water, without food, to be processed by the Border Patrol,” said the director, referring to the undocumented immigrants who have been detained by the agency or have requested asylum upon arriving at the border.

Migrants in Arizona

A decade ago, most migrants crossing the border came from Central America and Mexico. Now you can see people from different parts of the world, including countries as far away as China, India and Russia.

“That is why the work done by volunteers like Shura is so important, who do good without expecting anything in return,” highlighted Figueroa.

According to the group Compassionate Borders, which relies on data from the Pima County Medical Examiner’s Office and consulates, since 2007 nearly 3,000 migrants have lost their lives on the Arizona border. Only from January to November, 189 deaths were reported, exceeding the 179 in 2022.

‘Shura’ will officially premiere in March during The American Documentary and Animation Film Festival in Palm Springs, California. Figueroa has high hopes that the film can be nominated for an Oscar in the documentary-short film category.

“Shura is an authentic woman. The main message of this short film is to serve others, regardless of their nationality, age or religion,” she stated.

Figueroa is the producer of “The Harvest/La Cosecha” and “Food Chains,” which address child labor and labor exploitation in the United States agricultural industry. With EFE

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