As a refugee from war-torn South Sudan, Zacharia Machiek was desperate to do something positive for the village he was forced to flee as a boy.
The Sydney security guard came up with an ambitious plan - raising funds to build a school so that girls from his community could get an education for the first time.
But on a 42-day fundraising walk from the Queensland border to Sydney, Machiek ran into a series of unexpected problems that raised serious doubts about what he was doing.
Director Tom Zubrycki followed the 1000-kilometre trek for the documentary Hope Road, which is having its world premiere at the 64th Sydney Film Festival.
And in a time-honoured tradition for filmmakers at the venerable festival, which opens with Warwick Thornton's We Don't Need A Map on Wednesday, Zubrycki was still finessing the last scenes just days out from the first screening.
But it's familiar territory for one of the country's most acclaimed documentary directors.
Hope Road is his 11th world premiere at the festival - likely a record - which includes such highly regarded films as Waterloo (1981), The Diplomat (2000) and Molly & Mobarak (2003).
Zubrycki always knew the challenges facing Machiek would take the documentary in unexpected directions.
"Building a school in South Sudan by remote from Australia, even with the co-operation of locals, was going to be a momentous task," he says. "Even from the very beginning, you could see it wasn't going to be easy."
But Machiek became an inspiring figure even as an outbreak of war in South Sudan and fund-raising struggles had him questioning whether the walk was worth the effort.
"He's unbelievably driven," Zubrycki says. "If there's adversity - and there have been quite a few times of that in his life - he manages to find a way through it."
The documentary tells a wider story about the sense of obligation that many immigrants have to their home countries.
"Everybody is split, it seems, between two identities - a new one here, the other over there," Zubrycki says. "[The South Sudanese community] feel an obligation to do something for the people they've left behind."
Machiek hopes the film draws attention to his school building plans.
"I'm very much excited," he says of the premiere. "I hope the film will increase the awareness of what we've been going through and what we still need to do."
As an orphan in 1987, Machiek and five other boys fled the outbreak of war by walking to Ethiopia then back through Sudan to Kenya. The only one to survive, he spent 10 years in a refugee camp then another five years in Egypt before being sponsored to come to Australia.
After all that, the fund-raising trek was not too difficult.
"It was not something new to me to walk a long distance," Machiek says. "But what I found amazing was the support I got [from] town to town. I didn't even realise I was walking for 42 days."
Having added a batch of late films including Cannes Palme d'Or winner The Square to the program, festival director Nashen Moodley says preparations have been going smoothly.
"Ticket sales are going very well," he says. "We won't fill all the cinemas, of course, so there's work to be done yet, but we're feeling confident."
The festival is screening 295 feature films, documentaries and shorts from more than 60 countries until June 18.
Festival highlights
- The festival opens with the world premiere of Warwick Thornton's documentary We Don't Need A Map, about the significance of the Southern Cross.
- Red Dog director Kriv Stenders has two films on debut - the thriller Australia Day and the musical documentary The Go Betweens: Right Here.
- David Wenham has turned to directing with Ellipsis, a slice-of-life love story set in Sydney.
- The $60,000 competition for "courageous, audacious and cutting-edge cinema" includes Sofia Coppola's thriller The Beguiled, the acclaimed documentary I Am Not Your Negro and Benedict Andrews' drama Una.
- Vanessa Redgrave, aged 80, will be a guest at screenings of her directing debut - the refugee documentary Sea Sorrow.
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There is a retrospective of the films of master Japanese director Akira Kurosawa.
- Newly restored versions of the Australian films The Year My Voice Broke, The Well and Rocking The Foundations will screen.
- The festival closes on June 18 with Korean director Bong Joon-ho's comic thriller Okja.