(THIS ARTICLE IS MACHINE TRANSLATED by Google from Norwegian)
A Syrian Love Story
Director and photographer: Sean McAllister
A Syrian Love Story begins with footage from Syria in 2009, when British documentary filmmaker Sean McAllister took part in a smear tour for journalists to be shown the country as the next major tourist destination. McAllister, for his part, was looking to film something more gritty in the sense real, as he says in the film – knowing that he visited a country with many political prisoners.
In the Palestinian freedom fighter Amer, the filmmaker found a person who had experienced sitting in a Syrian prison, where he had also met his wife, the Syrian revolutionary fighter Raghda, 15 years earlier. When McAllister meets Amer, he is alone with their children, after Raghda was imprisoned again, this time for writing a government-critical book.
McAllister then follows this couple through five years for this documentary, and with that he has come very close to a story that takes many very dramatic turns. A Syrian Love Story had its world premiere at the Sheffield Documentary Festival last year, where it deservedly won the award for best film in the main competition.
Reunion. Early in the film, Amer initiates protests against the wife's imprisonment, and with international pressure on the Syrian authorities she is eventually released. But it does not take long for the happy reunion with the family until it becomes clear that Raghda is strongly characterized by traumatic experiences from the prison stay.
18 months after the filmmaker was first invited to Syria, then the Arab Spring comes to the country. Of course, this makes a strong impression on the documentary, and it is not the first time McAllister has found himself in the middle of these events.
In his previous movie The Reluctant Revolutionary (2012) he portrayed a tourist guide in Yemen, depicting the riots of those who originated in the country – which has been far less in the news than Syria, for example. Initially, McAllister's protagonist Kais is a pragmatic oriented opponent of the revolution, because of the consequences it will have for his industry. Along the way, however, he becomes increasingly sympathetic to the rebels as he witnesses the brutal treatment they receive from the authorities.
I The Reluctant Revolutionary McAllister with his camera also witnessed this extreme violence, not without exposing himself to a certain danger.
The filmmaker imprisoned. In Syria, too, he will be directly involved in the dramatic events, and in addition, even get to know the Assad regime's exercise of power on the body. Along the way in A Syrian Love Story Namely, McAllister himself is arrested, spending five days in a Syrian prison. Authorities are also seizing his camera, which features footage that will put Amer and Raghda at risk. The family therefore seems to have to flee to Lebanon.
Amer then wants them to apply for asylum in Europe, which he, as Palestinians, depends on Raghda's status as Syrian oppositionist to do. But she struggles with leaving a Syria facing radical upheaval, for which she herself has been a profiled champion.
Love History. As the title implies is A Syrian Love Story a love story, but at the same time a story about Syria – and especially in recent years in the country. And if the film – through Raghda in particular with its belief in change – is a kind of declaration of love for Syria, it expresses quite a different feeling for the country's governing powers. Not least, it makes the impression of witnessing the children's hatred of President Bashar al-Assad, who has for a long time robbed their mother.
In addition, the film gives a very up-to-date description of life as a refugee, first in Lebanon and then Paris, when the family eventually arrives in Europe.
Along the way in A Syrian Love Story the filmmaker himself is arrested, after which he spent five days in a Syrian prison.
Changing balance of power. As a kind of parallel to the fact that Syria is getting worse throughout the film, Amer and Raghda also face major challenges. McAllister's film can in part be seen as a study of a couple's changing balance of power, in this case related to Raghda's position as a well-known revolutionary figure. When she can no longer contribute to the resistance movement, she feels that she is losing a central part of her identity. About this, Amer says that she cannot be both Che Guevara and mother – without himself being completely faithful to the family in every way. But that is not to say that the film ends completely without hope, at least not for the film's main characters. For Syria, it is still difficult to be overly optimistic.
With his intimate portrait of people from a country of considerable conflict, where the filmmaker himself plays a role in the dramatic events A Syrian Love Story Sean McAllister's clear signature. This time it has resulted in a film with a timeliness that far exceeded what he could imagine at the beginning of the project. And that is definitely real and "gritty" enough, and probably very far away from what the hosts of his original Syria visit had hoped for.
A Syrian Love Story appears Wednesday, February 17 and Sunday, February 21. during the film festival Human Rights Human Wrongs.
The film has also been purchased for viewing on NRK.
