Talal Derki

Of fathers and sons

Part of

Edition 2018 — Movies
Distribution
Docs del Mes
Festival

Of fathers and sons

Talal Derki

2017

98 min.

Germany, Lebanon, Qatar and Syria

Arabic

Subtitles: Catalan and Spanish

A story that helps understand the complexity and tragedy of the current conflict in Syria through the day-to-day life of both children.

Topic:

Datasheet

Show

Direction

Talal Derki

Executive Production

Dan Cogan, Jenny Raskin, Geralyn White Dreyfous

Distribution

DocsBarcelona Distribution

Production

Ansgar Frerich, Eva Kemme, Tobias Siebert, Hans Robert Eisenhauer

Co-production

Talal Derki

Producción

BASIS BERLIN Filmproduktion

Co-producción

Ventana Film, Cinema Group Production

Colaboración

Impact Partners

Datasheet

Direction

Talal Derki

Executive Production

Dan Cogan, Jenny Raskin, Geralyn White Dreyfous

Distribution

DocsBarcelona Distribution

Production

Ansgar Frerich, Eva Kemme, Tobias Siebert, Hans Robert Eisenhauer

Co-production

Talal Derki

Producción

BASIS BERLIN Filmproduktion

Co-producción

Ventana Film, Cinema Group Production

Colaboración

Impact Partners

Synopsis

The director of Return to Homs goes back to his homeland to live for two years with the family of Abu Osama, a member of Al-Qaeda in Syria. There he witnesses how his children are trained from a very young age to become Jihad soldiers. We discover from within what it means to grow up with a jihadist father.

His two children, Osama and Ayman, worship, admire and obey their father, but while Osama seems to follow the Jihad path, Ayman wants to go back to school. After winning the World Cinema Grand Jury Prize at Sundance, Talal Derki seduces us with a story that helps understand the complexity and tragedy of the current conflict in Syria through the day-to-day life of both children.

About the direction

Talal Derki

Director

Talal Derki was born in Damascus and has been based in Berlin since 2014. He studied film directing...

More info

DocsBarcelona Trajectory

2018

DocsBarcelona Festival · Panorama

Edició 2018

2018

Docs del Mes · November

Edició 2018

Awards and festivals

IDFA

Netherlands, 2017

Jury Award · Sundance

EUA, 2018

Best Documentary · DocumentaMadrid

Spain, 2018

Best Film · SWR Doku Festival

Germany, 2018

Sheffield Documentary Fest

United Kingdom, 2018

CPH:DOX

Denmark, 2018

Visions du Réel

Swiss, 2018

Thessaloniki

Greek, 2018

Talal Derki

Of fathers and sons

Watch the trailer→

Reviews

“

Terki avoids too much moralizing or even authoring, allowing his camera and presence to fade into the background of most scenes.
— Brian Tallerico · RogerEbert.com

“

[Derki's poetic narration] serve to frame "Of Fathers and Sons" with the feeling that you're seeing a warped dream of family survival, one in which still-noticeable human bonds can't help but be corroded by isolating hatred and extremist ideology.
— Robert Abele · Los Angeles Times

“