I would like to clarify some points of l_rawjalaurence 's review.

I just watched the film today followed by a Q&A with Sean McAllister.
Reading l_rawjalaurence 's review, I had to give my opinion to balance it out because I thought it was completely unfair with the movie and some important points were not considered. I understand that one can come to the same conclusions while watching it. After all,it's not very clear why Sean is so present all the time. But I would like to clarify some points and hopefully it will clear some questions.

1- "The story is a poignant one, charting the ways in which personal feelings and political commitment often conflict with one another. Yet director McAllister continues to obtrude himself into the narrative, talking at one point about his own imprisonment in Syria, and freely associating with the family. This decision tends to divert attention away from the film's basic subject; are we really witnessing a depiction of an ordinary Syrian family, or concentrating instead on the director's relationship to that family?"

A: Sean was not merely shooting the documentary with the family, he became their friend and companion midst the beginning of the revolution. It was not easy to have to fear for your safety in a daily basis and all of them were aware of the risky, hence his involvement in this matter. The reason why he mentioned his own arrest was because (and he mentioned this in the film),the footages from his camera seized in the process was the reason why the family had to flee to Lebanon.


2- "This conflict becomes more pronounced when the family are in France, and Raghda and Amer begin to play out their marital struggles for the camera. McAllister eggs them on with some shamefully leading questions, almost as if he wants to fit their arguments into a melodramatic narrative of his own making. There is a certain sense of absurdity about two Syrian people discussing one another's foibles for McAllister's camera in English rather than in their native language of Arabic."

A: As one of the first refugee family to be settled in France, they were feeling isolated and alienated. Sean mentioned that even though there were few other families from Middle East in the area, they were all a bit cautious to start relating with each other. Easy to understand why after all the struggle and horrible things those families had gone through. Imagine if you are having marriage issues, after everything they had been through,in a strange city, you would probably call a friend who you could talk to. Also that scene is
just a part of footages of a day, surely they were also talking in their language in many occasions too.


3-"There are other devices that prove jarring; throughout the film Raghda and Amer's dialogue has been subtitled, even though their English pronunciation is perfectly comprehensible. The subtitles don't even reflect what they are saying, but provide a cleaned-up version of their syntax. McAllister himself resorts to using pidgin English, especially with the children, which makes it seem as it he positions himself as a privileged Westerner talking down to the Easterners."

A: Maybe the subtitle is not word for word but it means exactly what they say, many times they are interchanging Arabic and English, the subtitle just follows with it. With the older sons he is talking normally in my view. Of course with the youngest he tends to talk more slowly, like you would sometimes to any child at his age, even in ones mother tongue, imagine being a second language! He's just a child...


4-"In the end nothing is resolved; but McAllister has his film, which presumably was his intention anyway."

A: Well, of course nothing is resolved! It is their lives and they are still there living. She is still in Turkey trying to help the opposition and he is still in France with the kids. And most importantly the war is not resolved!
And yeah McAllister has the film, which was his intention... to humanise a family, people of a nation that at the moment is suffering with the war and how they are treated all over the world. Specially in Europe, which is closing its doors and letting them drown in the sea. Politicians allow this to happen because we are too detached from their sufferings, as we can not visualise their lives as being lives just like ours. The demonization of the refugees is disgusting. We need to do more to change it, and a film like this helps to show
the horrible things they have been through and in the end of the day they are a normal family, just like us.


Peace for Syria!