Dennis left Ireland in the midst of the global financial crisis in order to find work abroad. Hashem was a politician in Bangladesh, but had to flee for Spain after a change in government and threats on his life. Alicia left Peru for Chile, and then Chile for Spain, after falling into debt selling goods on the streets. By age eighteen, Ali had fled Afghanistan, Iran and Sweden, finally reaching France, where he hoped to receive asylum. Mary, Dennis’ grandmother, and John, her elderly neighbour, lived in Ireland their entire lives, just six miles from where they were born. They watched the majority of their siblings leave a poverty-stricken rural Ireland for the chance of a better life abroad.

Floating between Ireland, Spain, Chile, Sweden, France and Bangladesh over seven years, I Must Away follows four migrants who have each left home to rebuild their life abroad. Narrated by a series of letters from the director to his grandmother, the film is a kaleidoscopic vérité essay which disentangles roots, land and identity, and explores the unequal distribution of rights and privileges, in our age of migration.