A Place Called Welcome: A film about seeking refuge, kindness and belonging

When Noah arrived in the UK, exhausted after a long and dangerous journey that began in the countryside of northwest Syria, he had no idea that a small village in Devon would one day become like a second home – or that he would create a film celebrating the warmth and welcome he found there.

A Place Called Welcome, a documentary feature film created by Syrian refugee filmmaker Noah Bakour and lifelong Devon resident Claire Ash Wheeler, focusses on friendship, everyday acts of kindness and the warmth of welcome that grows when people truly meet one another.

“Everything changed so suddenly”: Noah’s journey

Noah was born in rural northwest Syria, surrounded by fields and olive trees. When the war began, he was just 11 years old. He may not have understood why terrible things were happening around him, but he could feel how deeply unsafe his environment had become.

“Bread didn’t arrive at the supermarket. The electricity would shut down. Protests started in our village and the next one. We started to hear bombing and fighting all around us. We had to move from village to village, always searching for safety. Threats came from everywhere.”

Noah began taking photos and documenting daily life, a diary of survival. He didn’t think of himself as a journalist at that time, but he felt in his gut that documenting the reality on the ground was the right thing to do. International and regional media outlets eventually noticed his work, making it even more dangerous for him to stay. Eventually, his father told him he had to leave, for both his and his family’s safety. “It was the hardest thing he ever said to me.”

In 2019, Noah crossed into Türkiye, where he learned Turkish, studied cinema and continued his work behind the camera. But what initially felt like a new beginning grew more challenging over time. With millions of Syrian refugees hosted in the country, Noah faced racism which made him feel like he didn’t belong.

Noah’s journey to the UK was full of uncertainty and fear, and by the time he arrived, he was exhausted, both physically and emotionally. He arrived in Cardiff unable to speak English. Everything felt unfamiliar and quiet.

He wasn’t allowed to work as an asylum-seeker, so Noah cooked instead, using all the money he received to buy food and share it with fellow volunteers at a community garden. Eventually, through English classes and conversations with the people around him, his English improved – and after one and a half years of waiting, his asylum claim was approved.

“That community garden became my first community in Wales,” he says. “There were moments of deep loneliness and frustration, where I felt stuck and invisible. But even in those moments, small acts of kindness from people around me helped me keep going.”

Noah and Claire’s friendship is at the centre of A Place Called Welcome, a new documentary feature film. The film explores the meaning of the word “welcome” as a lived reality sustained by everyday acts of kindness.

A village in Devon asks: “What can we do?”

Hundreds of miles away in Devon, Claire was having her own moment of reckoning.

A retired Montessori teacher, mother, grandmother and environmentalist, Claire grew up in rural Devon and loves her dynamic and active community on Dartmoor. For her, the humanitarian emergency in Syria in 2017 was a wake-up call.

“I felt very upset and disempowered. I asked myself: What can I do to help Syrian refugees? What can a small village do to make a difference?”

A friend pointed her to Bristol Hospitality Network, where the director, Rachael Bee, encouraged her to consider something simple but transformative: offering holidays or retreats.

Claire returned home, gathered her neighbours, and together they formed a small team. In 2018, the first group of asylum-seekers arrived in Chagford for a six-day holiday. Hosted in local homes, they shared meals, explored Dartmoor, enjoyed the fresh air and took part in activities like swimming and gardening.

It was an unexpected success. And these holidays made a massive difference — not just to the refugees and asylum-seekers, mostly based in urban areas with little opportunity to experience the country, but to the Brits who hosted them, who said it was a privilege to provide hospitality to those from other cultures.

Astonishingly, on average, 50 locals volunteer to support these holidays, from hosting to cake making to transport to art sessions. And over the past seven years, it’s been an important event in the village calendar. That’s how, in 2022, Claire first met Noah.

“I remember walking into the kitchen, I think the second or third day they were staying with us. Noah and his cousin were in the kitchen cooking, and they just felt so at home – and we felt so at home with them.”

The friendship grew easily: sharing music, laughter and cooking. What started as a short stay slowly grew into something much deeper. “It was a revelation,” Claire says. “A massive cultural exchange, built on human connection. I wanted to make a difference to those seeking refuge, but they’ve made a massive difference to me!”

A Place Called Welcome

At the start of 2025, Claire found herself overwhelmed by the negative narratives about migration that she saw around her. Once again, she asked herself: What can I do to make a difference?

So, she called up Noah, whose career in documentary filmmaking was flourishing. “I said, ‘We have to make a film with a strong, positive message about the resilience of asylum-seekers and the inspiration of refugees and charities that support them.’”

At the centre of A Place Called Welcome is the friendship between Noah and Claire. Together, they travel across the UK, highlighting the uplifting stories of asylum-seekers and refugees, meeting the charities and warm-hearted people making change quietly, every day. It’s a deeply personal film, rooted in Noah’s lived experience as a refugee and Claire’s lived experience of befriending them.

“The film counters fear with facts and real human stories,” Noah explains, “showing friendship, connection and what happens when people from different cultures are given the chance to be part of society.”

They visited communities in Bristol, Somerset, Cardiff and Scotland’s Isle of Bute – where more than 100 Syrians have been welcomed in recent years.

Both Noah and Claire hope that the film sparks mutual appreciation, encourages practical solutions and reminds people that kindness still thrives in the UK.

“I wish people understood that refugees are human beings first, not labels, not numbers, not problems to be solved,” Noah explains. “The film tells a story of hope, of integration, small everyday moments and the hope for a better future that everyone deserves – whether they are a refugee or not.”

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To learn more about A Place Called Welcome, follow them on Facebook and Instagram. If you have lived experience of displacement and are interested in sharing your story, you can learn more about our Storytelling Programme here.