Future Imperfect

IT'S A CLIMATE CHANGED WORLD, and the River Rhone has flooded the town of Arles in France. Helen and Isha leave to join their daughter and eleven-month-old granddaughter, Ayo, in England. In Calais, Isha, who has Ugandan-Asian ancestry, is told that new rules mean she will be immediately deported if she crosses the Channel. Faced with a terrible dilemma, Helen chooses to stay with her. Homeless and stateless, they seek refuge in a friend's Swiss mountain chalet, but to get there, they must avoid main roads and immigration checkpoints. They decide to walk along the Via Francigena, an ancient pilgrimage route from Canterbury to Rome, but now also the preferred escape corridor for climate refugees fleeing north. Jana resolves to follow them, though this is not a simple decision. The family communicates whenever and however they can while battling exhaustion, terror and the virulent xenophobia of people struggling to protect their increasingly scarce resources.

Their journey does not end in Switzerland. The end of their story is a new beginning.