Film Movement DVD Review: In Syria (2017) & Le Pain (2001)

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“Syrians seeking refuge in Europe right now have no choice but to abandon their homes and country. They all come from places for which we lack images,” In Syria director Philippe Van Leeuw explained in an interview, sharing that, with the Berlin Film Festival Audience Award Winner, he hoped to “shine a light on the dignity of civilian populations.”

Inspired by a real story a friend told him in 2012 about her father being trapped inside his apartment in Aleppo for three weeks as his neighborhood suddenly turned into a war zone, in the film, Van Leeuw ensures we feel the danger even before we see a single image by filling the soundtrack with explosions and gunfire that play over Syria's dark opening credits.

Set over the course of twenty-four frantic hours, in this neorealist docudrama, Van Leeuw pays homage to the man whose experience sparked the idea for the picture with bookended shots of a paternal character trapped inside his daughter-in-law's Damascus apartment getting up every morning for his ritual smoke.

Turning her one-family apartment into a barricaded shelter, with her husband away, Oum Yazan (Hiam Abbass) vows to protect her three children, neighbors, family, and friends at all costs.

Pinned down by snipers and jeopardized by bandits going from floor to floor, after Oum's house cleaner sees one of their temporary residents get shot at the start of the day, it's the first bad omen of more misfortune to come. With each resident knowing that if they get caught, they could risk everyone else, the group strives to get through their most dangerous day yet, hoping for either a chance to escape or ever illusive help to come.

Anchored by the always excellent Abbass (currently making her American small screen debut on HBO's smash hit Succession) and The Insult's Diamand Bou Abboud, Van Leeuw rounds out his cast with actual Syrian refugees.

Timelier than ever given not only the ongoing war and refugee crisis but especially because it coincides by the Trump administration's barbaric treatment of immigrants, without wasting a single frame, In Syria remains heart-stoppingly intense for its entire eighty-six minute running time.

Careful not to venture into exploitative territory during one especially harrowing scene, although Van Leeuw remains entirely focused on faces and actions rather than fill the entire frame with assault, the horrific extended sequence is sure to stay with viewers long after the film is over.

Under-reported in the states, Van Leeuw's powerful docudrama gives viewers a stark look at life during hellish wartime, all the while applauding the courage of everyday citizens to do whatever it takes to fight back and stay strong.

Rounding out the disc with Le Pain, a well-made roughly twenty minute short directed by and starring Hiam Abbass, while this pairing of feature and short from Film Movement is the opposite of uplifting, together they paint a wonderful portrait of the underappreciated strength of mothers who routinely put the needs of everyone else – especially children and men – before their own.

Centering on a tragedy that befalls a family after they move to the French countryside, as the first of four short films made by the star, Le Pain is a consummate work from 2001.

Intriguing and character driven, Le Pain, could very well have served as the first act of a feature in its own right that I would loved to have seen. And while it isn't likely to be picked up again now seventeen years later, I certainly hope its reemergence on this new Film Movement DVD will give Abbass more opportunities to tell the stories she wants on both sides of the lens.

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The Visitor

Director: Thomas McCarthy

How would you react if you discovered that someone was already living your life-- not your life exactly but living the life you’d always wanted but never had the courage to attempt?

When the bored, humorless, impersonal Professor Walter Vale (Richard Jenkins) who’s been sleepwalking through his life by teaching the same course for twenty years and coasting professionally under the guise of writing a book is ordered by the dean of his Connecticut institution to present a co-authored paper at a Global Policy and Development Conference New York University, he tries to find any excuse not to go. However, his feeble excuses seem to be as unconvincing as the ones his students give him when turning in late assignments and, packing up a few pertinent belongings, he returns to an apartment he’d owned for twenty-five years which he’d shared with his late pianist wife. It's his wife's music that seems to have left a larger absence than the mostly absent Walter, as a neighbor fondly recalls her keystrokes in a way that makes us instantly aware that the reason Walter has gone through five piano teachers in a quest to learn the instrument himself is because to the man, who still wears his wedding band, the only time the piano sounded the way it should is when she’d been alive.

Startled to find fresh flowers in a vase and a light wafting out into the hallway from the bathroom, once he gets further into the apartment, Walter realizes that he is not alone, only to discover a young Muslim illegal immigrant couple has been renting the place for two months, having been tricked into the arrangement by an unseen fast-talker named Ivan. After apologetically packing up their belongings and setting off into the night, Walter’s humanity gets the better of him and he offers to share the place with the Syrian Tarek Khalil (Haaz Sleiman) and his girlfriend from Senegal by way of France, Zairab (Danai Gurira) for a few days until they can figure out their next move. Soon charmed by the earnest and friendly drummer Tarek, Walter is thrilled to find a new ally who shares his passion for music and the two embark on an amusing, surprisingly gentle and natural friendship that manages to subtly touch viewers similar to the way that the outsiders of writer/director Thomas McCarthy’s first film The Station Agent did years earlier. When a misunderstanding leads to Tarek’s arrest and detainment in an immigration detention center in Queens, Walter, who originally hadn’t wanted to leave Connecticut is surprised to now find himself with the inability to leave Tarek, Zairab and New York City out of loyalty and genuine compassion that’s strengthened into a tender, awkward courtship when Tarek’s beautiful mother Mouna (Satin Rouge’s Hiam Abbass) arrives to find out why she hasn’t heard from her son.

Winner of three awards at Method Fest, this official selection at both the Sundance and Toronto International Film Festivals is sure to strike a chord with McCarthy’s Station Agent fans but instead of on the surface deceptively being advertised as a similar cute story of opposites and oddities coming together, it’s a gentle, humanistic and moving tale that celebrates diversity and understanding throughout. Although there are a few covert political messages sprinkled throughout (along with a few overt ones), McCarthy’s deftly written and inspiringly acted work, which features a breakout role for Sleiman and a solid showcase for Jenkins, succeeds because even though it has the perfect platform to become a “message movie,” it forgoes the urge to preach. Instead, The Visitor emphasizes human relationships over sociological statements and open conversation over sound bytes. McCarthy's The Visitor is highly recommended and one of the best films I was fortunate enough to see at the 2008 Phoenix Film Festival.