Netflix’s Stateless Is Tough But Necessary Viewing

There’s a line from Netflix’s new miniseries Stateless (now streaming) that I just can’t get out of my head. It’s said by Ameer (Fayssal Bazzi), an Afghani refugee seeking Australian protection visas for both himself and his young daughter, Mina (Soraya Heidari). “I am a school teacher. I’m a father. A man of faith,” he says to Clare (Asher Keddie), the immigration boss who determines his fate in Australia—a woman who’s found the smallest slight against Ameer, but it’s enough to prevent him from receiving a visa. “Why can’t you see all of that when you look at me? Why must you dig in every corner for specks of dirt?”

This, in a nutshell, sums up the message of Stateless. The show’s six episodes are based on real events that explore Australia’s deeply flawed immigration system—and by extension several systems across the world. The United States’ immigration policies have been widely reported and criticized, and if you’ve read the news over the past two or three years, Stateless will hit close to home. Every day families are torn apart by immigration systems that make it either difficult or downright impossible to seek legal refuge in some countries. That is what Stateless is trying to highlight; it’s a tough watch but an extremely necessary one. 

It’s also absolutely captivating. The series tackles its weighty subject matter from several vantage points. There’s Ameer and his family from Afghanistan, who are seeking better lives and opportunities in Australia; Clare (Asher Keddie), head manager of the detention center, who’s trying to keep everything together, her moral compass included; Cam (Jai Courtney), who starts working as a guard and finds himself changing with the demands of the job; and Sofie (Yvonne Strahovski, The Handmaid’s Tale), a mentally ill Australian woman who’s wrongfully being held at the center. Sofie’s character is based on a real person, Cornelia Rau, who in 2005 was detained at a center despite being an Australian citizen. Her story became international news and is, in many ways, the focal point of Stateless.

What I found most refreshing about the show is that there are no heroes or villains. (Well, despite one corrections officer who’s an absolute terror, but she’s almost a caricature.) The only “villain” is the flawed immigration system⁠—but that’s made up of real people who are doing the best they can to make decisions, answer to their bosses, keep people safe, and manage their morals. You see this most clearly in Cam, who enters his guard job empathetic and warm but is quickly pressured into using brute force tactics. The pull between what he knows is right and the so-called demands of his job are eating him up, and it all comes to a head in one scene that will stun you. 

The same goes for Clare, who makes cold, callous decisions about the center throughout the show but, by the end, realizes her own lack of humanity. Sofie, meanwhile, has found herself at the center after fleeing a cult (run by Dominic West and Cate Blanchett, who give chilling supporting performances). But her plans to flee to Germany are foiled, and she falls deeper and deeper into distress while in detainment. Her story doesn’t end on a happy note—in fact, no one’s really does—but that’s the point. I think what’s happening at these centers is wrong on every level, and I rarely see or hear about happy endings. Why would a show about these injustices be any different? 

There is one happy ending of sorts. Let’s call it happy-ending-adjacent. Ameer is able to secure a protection visa for young Mina but at the most devastating cost to himself. He is the bleeding heart of this series: an unflinchingly raw example of the horrible things that can happen to detained families at international borders. 

I don’t think it’s a coincidence this show is coming out now. Over the past few weeks, we’ve seen protests pop up around the world in support of Black Lives Matter. We see protests in Stateless too: Droves of people, including Cam’s own sister, come out to the detention center to protest, picket, and demand change. This year has especially made me see the power in those actions—as well as the power in getting educated and equipped before elections. Even though the setting is Australia, Stateless has been the launching pad for me to examine America’s own immigration policies. It can be yours too. 

Christopher Rosa is the staff entertainment writer at Glamour. Follow him on Twitter @chrisrosa92. 

Originally Appeared on Glamour