The Burden of Exile: A Banned Journalist’s Flight from Dictatorship

In the strict dictatorship of Eritrea, a young reporter co-founds the first independent newspaper, publishes stories that anger the president, and has to escape to save his life and his loved ones.

An idealistic journalist with a young family starts the first independent newspaper in the notorious police state of Eritrea – one of the most brutal dictatorships in the world. When the paper is shut down, he flees arrest and begins a dangerous journey to freedom, first across a desert, at night, into Sudan, pursued by Eritrean secret police, then into secret safe houses in Kenya. With the help of the United Nations, he finds sanctuary in Canada – a place he knows nothing about. Meanwhile his wife and young children are stuck back home, in constant danger of reprisal.

A true story of bravery amid complicated international geopolitics, of spies and guns and betrayal, and – ultimately – of triumph, and the piecing together of family in a cold new country.