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VIDEO: Teenage refugee becomes comic book hero

VIDEO: Teenage refugee becomes comic book hero

by Shanshan Chen/Amelia Wong | Thomson Reuters Foundation

Comic book "Over Under Sideways Down” is the moving story of a young refugee who fled home in fear of his life and went on to secure a place at university and won a part in an award-winning film 

It tells the story of Ebrahim Esmail who was exiled from Iran when he was 15 following the murder of his father. The illustrations detail the painful lows of Ebrahim’s experiences - from travelling on foot to Turkey with no food or water, to being carried for 15 days in the back of a lorry to the UK.

But it also charts highs such as winning a place on his dream course at London’s Brunel University and being cast in “Leave to Remain” – a film about asylum seekers by BAFTA-winning director Bruce Goodison.

Esmail, now 19, tells Thomson Reuters Foundation about how he kept going and his dreams for the future.

The novel, published this week,  was commissioned by the British Red Cross for Refugee Week 2014. 

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