Film based on Behrouz Boochani's story in the works". SBS News. 23 February 2020 . Retrieved 1 March 2020. A regular correspondent for Guardian Australia, Boochani wrote about seeing his friends shot and murdered by guards, his time in solitary confinement after reporting on a hunger strike, and the mental harm inflicted on fellow asylum seekers inside the Manus Island detention centre. As Sarah Lazare has recently argued, the distinction between refugees and migrants, so central to Australian discussions, was Although Boochani never tells us why he fled Iran, he does describe himself as "a child of war", the 1980s war between the "Iraqi Ba'athists" and "Iranian zealots" fought in large part on the soil of his Kurdish homeland. He tells us that he almost joined the armed Kurdistani independence forces in the mountains but always changed his mind, believing only in non-violent political action. He is haunted by the question, was his pacifist principle a rationalisation of cowardice?

The writing is poetic and epic, steeped in the tradition of Persian culture and belief systems. The book is profoundly important, all the more so because of the means of its production, an astonishing act of witness, and testament to the lifesaving power of writing as resistance. Hoodlum had produced the VR documentary Inside Manus for SBS, which introduced us to the tragedy of Manus Island. We felt that No Friends But The Mountains would make such a compelling feature film.” I think it is not the altitude that causes the violence but the isolation and insular nature of those isolated (as well as the fact that the govts responsible for/to them mostly ignore them when not raiding them for men or materials). It is true that "mountainous regions host a disproportionate share of the world's conflicts." The question is Why. (The author posits that in part it is because "lowlanders" or "flatlanders" cannot fight in the mountains, cannot follow fighters into the mountains successfully (as the US learned in A'stan but could have learned from Russia's experience there.... but that's another story).) Switzerland, by the way, is the exception that does or does not prove the rule. It is entirely mountainous and among the most peaceful nations on earth. We were gripped by Behrouz’s incredible book and have been in discussions with Ákos and Antony for some time,” Hoodlum’s Nathan Mayfield tells IF.Boochani has defied and defeated the best efforts of Australian governments to deny asylum seekers a face and a voice. And what a voice: poetic yet unsentimental, acerbic yet compassionate, sorrowful but never self-indulgent, reflective and considered even in anger and despair. ... It may well stand as one of the most important books published in Australia in two decades, the period of time during which our refugee policies have hardened into shape - and hardened our hearts in the process.' SATURDAY PAPER The term kyriarchal system is used in the book to identify these interconnected systems of domination and oppression; an examination of the meaning and significance of this concept is provided in my essays accompanying the work. Hello, I would like to say hello to everyone. I am very excited. I am sitting with an Australian friend and hear this news. Thank you very much.

Boochani, Behrouz; Tofighian, Omid (2018). "The Last Days in Manus Prison" (Summer 2018). Meanjin Quarterly. Archived from the original on 9 March 2019 . Retrieved 23 February 2019. {{ cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= ( help) The film adaption of No Friend But The Mountains will be a collaborative project between three Australian production companies: Aurora Films, Sweetshop & Green and Hoodlum Entertainment, and will be filmed primarily in Australia.In his poem, “The Charge of the Light Brigade”, Alfred Lord Tennyson wrote of the disastrous ride of the 600 into the Valley of Death: “Cannon to right of them, Cannon to left of them, Cannon in front of them volleyed and thundered; Stormed at with shot and shell. . . ” He was a political prisoner incarcerated by the Australian government in Papua New Guinea for almost seven years. In November 2019 Behrouz escaped to New Zealand. He now resides in Christchurch. Young, Evan (1 February 2019). "How a man detained on Manus Island won Australia's richest literary prize". SBS News. Archived from the original on 1 February 2019. Imagine a community of four hundred people, neglected in a boiling hot filthy cage, still traumatised by the terrifying sound of waves ringing in their ears and the rotting boat fixed before their eyes. ––– Behrouz Boochani, (126) Boochani chooses to present his account in a literary, poetic and idiosyncratic style. It’s a departure from the straightforward reporting of his journalism. The style is often feverish and sometimes frustrating when there are factual gaps – but any reader can resolve those gaps with some additional online research. Boochani more than succeeds in his aim to not just report the events but to convey the human experience and the depths of his personal torment. His narrative voice is bitter and angry (righteously so) and it is at times overwhelming to be inside his head.

In an interview with Arnold Zable, Boochani describes how literature facilitated precisely the transcendence that Améry sought but couldn’t find in poetry. ‘[W]hen I was writing,’ he says, ‘I was completely free … those moments were the most exciting … because I found myself out of the prison as a free man.’No Friend But The Mountains is a masterpiece of prisoner literature, up there with Solzhenitsyn and Levi (and no, I'm not going the Godwin's Law route, but I had visceral shivers reading some of the familiar conditions in that hellhole). Moreover, it is an instant Australian classic. Probably the most important book published here this century. The prose is stunning, the poetry sublime. It is dignified and courageous, honest and excoriating. And yes, it is heartbreaking. My mother always sighed and would say: ‘My boy, you came into this world in a time we called the flee and flight years.’” The Australian government always tries to hide the truth – and they should know that now the story is a big story. It’s not only my story, it’s our story.”