Everyday Activist - A Syrian Love Story (MLJFF 2016)

Posted on Sunday, November 13, 2016 at 12:30 PM

A Syrian Love Story (MLJFF 2016)

Movie Review by Everyday Activist X CalgaryMovies.com

I really hoped that A Syrian Love Story would be this fantastic, romantic film. Unfortunately, much like A Thousand Times Goodnight, I was duped. One day I will write a review about the latter film, I promise. Its director Erik Poppe, much like Tim Hetherington whom I’ve written about previously (Which Way Is the Front Line From Here? >, Anthropoid >, and Command and Control >), was an activist who needed to be close to the action despite having a family. Keeping these people in mind makes it easier to understand certain decisions and motivations of the characters. Activists are a different breed of people putting the greater good in front of all their personal responsibilities. In the film, A Syrian Love Story, Amer says something like “She cannot be Che Guevra and a mother”.

Amer himself was an activist. In fact he met his wife, Raghda in jail during protests back in the mid-1990s. When filmmaker Sean Mc Allister meets Amer in 2009, Raghda is back in jail for writing a book about two political prisoners who end up falling in love. When the children came along, Amer gave up his politics, but Raghda couldn’t. For love, Amer managed to take advantage of the Arab Spring protests in order to secure her freedom. Shortly after her release the family fled to Lebanon, Mc Allister following them.

Raghda goes back to Syria, leaving the family with a number of problems. Because she is targeted by the Syrian authorities her family has a chance of getting political asylum, but only if she’s with them. Eventually she comes back and the family moves to France, where her relationship with Amer and her children begins to deteriorate. As a therapist, I looked for signs of post-traumatic stress from her repeated imprisonments and there weren’t any, just the signs of a woman meant for a bigger mission. Maybe had the war ended, she would have had a chance at a normal life with her family as her most of her activism centered on making Syria a better place for everyone, her children included.

Mc Allister had followed the family for years and couldn’t believe what had happened in that time in Syria. He had originally come on invitation to tout Syria as a tourist destination, back in 2009. The war was still going and getting worse. Amer’s family lamented the people they had personally lost. Every day for years more people were killed, more buildings were destroyed. Even if people could go back, what would they go back too?

A Syrian Love Story plays Wednesday November 16th at 7:00 pm at Calgary Public Library Central - John Dutton Theatre as part of the Marda Loop Justice Film Festival 2016.

The guest speaker in attendance will be Mahmoud Aljumaa, a 28 years old born in Lattakia, a Syrian city on the Mediterranean. Mahmoud lived there until 2014, graduating from Tishreen University in Lattakia with a BA in English/Arabic translation. Working in education, as a translator for a large Syrian company, and as an English teacher to all levels and ages, Mahmoud also volunteered for almost a year teaching children with special needs such as Autism and Down's syndrome. A lover of language, Mahmoud sees them as a very valuable bridge of communication between people from different backgrounds. After a harrowing experience and difficult journey, Mahmoud moved to Turkey where he managed to settle and work in Istanbul as an English teacher and an interpreter. Mahmoud moved to Canada on July 11, 2016, and has been establishing life in a new home country ever since. 

Calgary Showtimes: Marda Loop Justice Film Festival 2016 > | A Syrian Love Story >