It is never easy nor comfortable to turn rich and textured research conversations about people’s lives into a brief article or a short film. In putting together our contribution for this special issue, we asked ourselves: What imagery best evokes the violence unaccompanied children and young people feel when asked, or made, to tell their story over and over – to the Home Office, solicitors, social workers, and more, as well as the violence of not being asked nor being heard? How can we show both strength and struggle in difficult times (a global pandemic) and often uncaring places (the UK’s hostile migration regime)? In what follows we discuss our ethical, political, and intellectual responses to these questions in relation to the film this text accompanies: Stories too big for a case file
