Directed by Sean McAllister
UK/Syria/Lebanon/France | English/French/Arabic w/ English subtitles | Documentary | 2015 | 76 min
Film Source: Cat & Docs
Sponsor: Vermont Council on World Affairs
Showtime: Sunday, October 23 | 6:30 p.m. | FH
Awards: Grand Jury Award – Sheffield International Documentary Festival
The screening will be preceded by a special reception and followed by a Q&A with former U.S. Ambassador to Syria, Robert Ford.
Amer Daoud, a Palestinian, met Raghda Hassan, a Syrian, through a hole in the wall of their adjoining cells while both were political prisoners in Syria in the 1990s. After Hassan was imprisoned for publishing a book about their romance, Daoud sought the help of British filmmaker Sean McAllister and the U.S. State Department to highlight her plight. McAllister is the kind of documentarian who is prepared to take risks to alert audiences to important issues. He spent time behind bars to chronicle this struggle of a married couple torn between raising their four sons and exposing the iniquities of Syrian president Bashar al-Assad’s dictatorship. Perhaps more than any other film about refugees and political activists — thanks to MacAllister’s dogged following of the family over five years — we not only gain insights into the complexities of living away from home, but also of the effect that freedom fighting can have on family life. A Syrian Love Story is a fascinating, compassionate, provocative film that is both timely and essential viewing. ~OY