I’m a filmmaker, and I grew up shaped by a family history of displacement. I am the child of someone who was forced to leave Pakistan because of faith-based discrimination, and from an early age I saw how exile doesn’t end with safety. It changes how people move through the world — how they relate to home, family, and the idea of belonging.

I didn’t grow up hearing dramatic stories of escape. What stayed with me were the quieter consequences: interrupted plans, relatives left behind, and a life rebuilt far from where it began. Those experiences shaped how I listen, and why I’m careful about the stories I tell and how they’re told.

Belonging Nowhere comes from that place. It exists so people who have lived through similar experiences can speak in their own words, without pressure or expectation — and so the aftermath of discrimination is seen not as an abstract idea, but as something lived, long after persecution ends.