Refugee's Harrowing Journey Inspires Powerful Short Film

British writer-director Olly Ginelli has released the trailer for his timely short film "The Long Spring" ahead of its fall festival appearances. The 15-minute project is inspired by Ginelli's time volunteering at the Dunkirk refugee camp in France, where he met and befriended a Kurdish man named Saady.

Forced to flee the territorial control of ISIS in 2015 with just the clothes on his back, Saady's perilous journey upon arriving in the U.K. has now inspired Ginelli's film. "The Long Spring" follows the journey of a brother-sister duo, Arron and Kika, trapped in the back of a truck with dozens of refugees. As hours turn to days, food and water run out, and fear begins to take hold. When whispers spread that their smugglers may, in fact, be traffickers, Arron's optimism starts to unravel.

Ginelli has even bigger plans for a four-part limited series he's writing on the same topic of modern-day slavery, which he says is a bigger issue than ever, with more slaves today than in recorded history. Though "The Long Spring" was privately funded, one investor is keen to help out on Ginelli's TV plans. The filmmaker is passionate about showing people worlds they haven't seen before, and the refugee crisis is one such angle he aims to explore further.