Comrades and lovers Amer and Raghda met in a Syrian prison cell 15 years ago. When McAllister first meets their family in 2009, Raghda is back in prison leaving Amer to look after their 4 boys alone; but as the ‘Arab Spring’ sweeps the region, the family’s fate shifts irrevocably. Filmed over 5 years, the film charts their incredible odyssey to political freedom. For Raghda and Amer, it is a journey of hope, dreams and despair: for the revolution, their homeland and each other.

Direction: Sean McAllister

Production: Elhum Shakerifar, Elhum Shakerifar

Cinematography: Sean McAllister

Editing: Matthew Scholes, Johnny Burke

Original Score: Terence Dunn

Original Title: A SYRIAN LOVE STORY

Original Languages: Arabic, English, French

Subtitles: English

Film Production Country: United Kingdom

Website: http://asyrianlovestory.com

Social Media: http://facebook.com/ASyrianLoveStoryFilm

Statement of the Director/s
I first went to Syria in 2009 curious about its secularism and booming tourist industry. Under Bashar Al Assad, the young ‘reformer’, tourism was generating millions of dollars a year. I met Amer, drinking a beer in a bar. Here was someone who wanted to show the world the truth of the Syrian people away from the glitz of the tourist quarters in old Damascus. My love affair with Syria had begun...

Amer's family moved 15 times during filming, but at each stage I was always welcomed in - I always had a place at the dinner table and a place to stay in their home. I didn’t know Raghda when I started filming – as she was in prison – but I never expected that she would end up taking centre stage of this film. At first – just as Amer had been – she was very stilted with the camera and naturally untrusting. But the longer I stayed with them the closer I got. The closeness became difficult at one stage as their relationship really broke down and Raghda would call me and ask me to come over to help make sense of their lives and their faltering relationship. It was as if they had both stepped into the film and used it in for their own means. It is this involvement in the process of filming that I find most fascinating and I’m always surprised as a filmmaker to witness the brutal honesty of people when they are naked and open in front of your camera. It is a painstaking process - it takes years to get inside, so that people are not just acting out their lives in front of your camera but using you and a projected audience to help make sense of the world they find themselves in.

We weren't commissioned or supported to make the film until quite late in the process so I didn't really know if the film would ever see the light of day but I kept going back to see them as friends and filming - I couldn't stop myself. In retrospect, this gave the film it's longevity and story arch and has made the experience of making this film more like a life I adopted, or a family that eventually adopted me. It's an absurd hobby I call a job; it kills me most of the time but has the small significant reward of seeing my characters championed on the screen and stepping forward defiant in their lives through their involvement with the film. I feel proud and happy for Amer, Raghda and their beautiful wonder family, and very honoured that they gave so much to make this film – it is the most special film I have made to date in my career.

Biography of the Director/s
Director Sean McAllister is known for his candid, frank films, depicting with extraordinary intimacy the lives of ordinary people who are struggling to survive but are survivors, caught up in political and personal conflict, struggling to make sense of the world we live in. From his early films Working For The Enemy (1997) and The Minders (1998), both nominated for a Royal Television Society Awards, to his more recent successes, Sundance Jury Prize-winning The Liberace Of Baghdad (2004), Japan: A Story Of Love And Hate (2008), ‘The Reluctant Revolutionary‘ and his recent Sheffield Jury Prize winning A Syrian Love Story (2015), Sean’s work continues to inspire, to surprise and to fascinate audiences.

Awards Won
Grand Jury Prize, Sheffield Doc/Fest 2015

World Sales:
10Ft Films Ltd
Elhum Shakerifar
87 Athlone Road
London, SW2 2DU, United Kingdom
E-Mail: [email protected]
Phone: 00447800558256
Website: http://www.seanmcallister.com/

Press:
10Ft Films Ltd
Elhum Shakerifar
87 Athlone Road
London, SW2 2DU, United Kingdom
E-Mail: [email protected]
Phone: 00447800558256
Website: http://www.seanmcallister.com/