‘The Reluctant Shanty’ features real-life refugees, who sing a shanty written from multiple interviews with refugees about the dangerous sea crossings they made to escape persecution and conflict.

Crafted with an elevated visual style and raw intimacy, The Reluctant Sea Shanty witnesses three refugees stranded in the ocean.

In the film, real-life casting and naturalistic performances meet a poetic visual style - where the refugees’ experiences are stripped back to their essential symbols - such as the eerie calm of a vast foreboding ocean and the melancholy of empty life vests.

Through its authentic casting, copywriting and nuanced direction, The Reluctant Shanty shines light on the hope and fortitude of the refugees who risk everything to arrive in not only Australia, but countless other countries around the world.

The Reluctant Shanty is the first shanty based on the experiences of those who’ve embarked on dangerous sea crossings as refugees.

Seeking asylum more often than not, brings serious risk of injury or death, as well as endangerment of life, exploitation, or violence.

In the lead up to World Refugee Day (20th June), Australians for UNHCR wanted to boost awareness of both the plight of refugees and the refugee assistance programs they run globally to support displaced people worldwide, and raise much needed funds.

In the Reluctant Shanty, real-life refugees sing a shanty about the dangerous sea crossings they made to escape persecution and conflict.

The team wrote the shanty from interviews with multiple refugees, ensuring that the song was authentic to those performing it. It was then carefully rehearsed over a period of weeks, and recorded live on set so the performers were fully immersed in the lyrics and situation.

The song was launched on World Refugee Day, through a TikTok Duet with creator Nathan Evans, who went viral singing sea shanties during COVID.

While sea shanties are almost as old as sailors, this is the first shanty written from the experiences of former refugees. The use of original music here subverts the genre in pursuit of a single fact: Today, not all sailors want to go to sea.