Nokia and The Humanitarian Cooperative use virtual reality to show impact of ongoing refugee crisis through a new lens and to support the efforts of UNHCR

Press release

• Virtual reality film on Syrian refugee crisis will have an advance screening today at UNHCR's annual High Commissioner's Dialogue on Protection Challenges in Geneva, Switzerland
• Captured with Nokia OZO, the world's first VR camera purpose-built for professionals, the film immerses the viewer in the life of a Syrian refugee who has been resettled in Finland

Film shows how innovative technologies can enable new ways to raise awareness of humanitarian causes and promote dialogue

8 December 2016

Espoo, Finland - Nokia and The Humanitarian Cooperative (THC) have created a 10-minute, documentary-style virtual reality film to raise awareness of the current refugee crisis and to support the work of The United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR). The film screens today at a UNHCR event in Geneva, Switzerland.

Around the world, the number of people uprooted by conflict and persecution shows no sign of abating and has worsened in recent years. Today, more than 65 million* people are displaced either inside their own country or as refugees. UNHCR works to protect refugees, the internally displaced and stateless people. To support these efforts, and to promote dialogue on the plight of these people, Nokia collaborated with talented filmmakers to find new ways of raising awareness of these human catastrophes.

Equipped with Nokia's professional virtual reality camera OZO, filmmakers David Gough and Thomas Maddens embarked on a journey to tell the story of Omar, a 9-year-old Syrian boy who had to leave his home just outside Aleppo and spent three years at a refugee camp in Lebanon, before finally being resettled in Finland.

Screening today at the ninth annual UNHCR High Commissioner's Dialogue on Protection Challenges in Geneva, Switzerland, the short film is captured by OZO in premium 3D 360 audio and video, providing the audience with a truly immersive experience of the harrowing life of a refugee. The joint production is an example of how new, innovative technologies are changing the way people communicate and empathize with each other, and shows how technology can be used to support humanitarian causes around the world.

UNHCR's High Commissioner's Dialogue is an annual event that brings together key practitioners and experts on refugee affairs. This year's theme, Children on the Move, recognizes the growing plight of young people who are fleeing violence and war, and struggling to reach safety.