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Award-winning Australian doco series goes global

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PR Wire
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press release Cordell Jigsaw Zapruder

Denmark will be the first to country to air a version of Australian series ‘Go Back to Where You Came From’. The series will premiere on the publicly owned Danish television station, TV2, from February 21st. Produced by Cordell Jigsaw Zapruder, the series most recently won Best Documentary Series at the AACTA awards (Australian Academy of Cinema and Television Arts).

The Danish version which is called Send Dem Hjem (Send Them Home) was filmed over 25 days travelling through Kabul, western parts of Afghanistan, Turkey and Greece with the participants and crew ending up in Danish immigrations camps.  Much like the Australian version, the territories were extremely dangerous, with the crew and participants witnessing shocking and confronting human suffering.     

“I’ve spoken to producers in other countries making their own versions of ‘Go Back To Where You Came From’ and they’re going through the same emotions we did before we set off – a combination of excitement and trepidation. Despite huge amounts of planning, they know they’ll be confronted with unknowns when they take inexperienced travellers and a film crew to the most dangerous parts of the world. The Danish version sounds incredible. We can’t wait to see all the finished products.” Rick McPhee (series producer)

Local versions of the series are also soon to be viewed in the USA, Germany, France, Norway, Netherlands, Sweden, South Africa and Canada.

CJZ CEO Nick Murray said “While the accolades are always celebrated and appreciated, knowing Australian ideas are then experienced by viewers around the globe is especially rewarding. Clearly the refugee crisis is a global one and the Go Back format allows the story to be told from a local perspective.

Series 1 of ‘Go Back to Where You Came From’ screened in Australia on SBS in 2011. Three episodes featured six ordinary Australians taking a refugee journey in reverse for the duration of 25 days. They travelled to Malaysia, Kenya, Jordan, the Democratic Republic of Congo and Iraq, without wallets, phones or passports.