Child refugee film ’Fatima’s Drawings’ wins top award

“Fatima’s drawings”, the harrowing tale of a young Syrian refugee’s journey to Sweden, has won the award for the best digital news story at the 2016 Visa pour l’Image photojournalism festival in southern France.

The short film by Sweden’s Magnus Wennman, published by the Aftonbladet newspaper with animations by Jenny Svenberg Bunnel, is a delicate and deeply moving portrayal of the hardships faced by refugees as seen through the drawings of a young child from the Syrian city of Idlib.

In the 5-minute film, Wennman tells the story of Fatima, who together with her mother and two siblings were forced to flee their war-stricken home in the northwestern city of Idlib, Syria.

Fatima now lives in the city of Norberg, Sweden. Through her drawings, she details her tragic journey from Syria to Sweden.

Visa pour l’Image, in the southern French city of Perpignan, is the world’s largest photojournalism festival. The digital news prize is awarded in partnership with several news organisations, including France 24.