After a great success of their short film “Mare Nostrum” (2016) which bagged 36 awards internationally, Syrian directors Rana Kazkaz and Anas Khalaf unite again, this time for their long-feature debut “The Translator” which celebrates its world premiere in the First Feature Competition of PÖFF (Tallinn Black Nights).
“The Translator” is screening at Vesoul International Film Festival of Asian Cinema
The brilliant Ziad Bakri of “Mare Nostrum” is the titular character Sami Najjar, a man whose calm life in Australia comes to an end when his brother Zaid gets arrested by Bashar al-Assad's regime in Damascus. With scary prospects of losing his third close family member after mother and father, Sami makes a dangerous decision of flying over to Syria. He is known and not welcome back due an incident he was responsible for, and the trip needs a careful preparation involving crossing the border in an unorthodox way.
The story is set in March of 2011, at the beginning of the revolution in Syria when people had big hopes in political reforms, although the film actually starts 30 years earlier with peaceful protests in Damascus in 1980. During those first calls for justice and dignity by the people, many protesters were arrested, and some never returned, officially filed as “disappeared”. Among them was Sami's father who was last time seen boarding the police van to never return home.
Juts a boy at the time, Sami is shown glued to the radio listening to reports in English about the situation in Syria. Three decades later, we see him as the official translator of the Syrian Olympic team in Sydney 2010, where his (quite deliberate) slip of the tongue qualifies as a good reason to grant him the political exile in Australia.
Daesh is still nowhere near, and the international community fails to recognize what's happening in Syria. For those few activists trying to get the message about the breach of human rights abroad, it's a matter of life and death. A couple of videos shot during the so called ‘Friday of Honor' on March 25th in 2011 on mobile phones, by average citizens find their way to Australia through the local journalist Jad (Fares Helou). Barely back in Syria, Sami is already faced with the brutality of Assad's regime.
Even if it feels like the film was based on true characters, “The Translator” is inspired by destinies of many people. Not the war, but the state of terror normal civilians were trying to oppose stands in the film's focus. In their directors' statement, Rana Kazkaz and Anas Khalaf address the significance of peaceful protests across the globe who happen even in the face of death, adding that making a film about the revolution pales in comparison to those who risked their lives to participate, “The Translator” nonetheless represents the need to testify.
It is more of a thriller than a war film that involves stories of friendships and treason, loyalty and nepotism, and courage in the times of need.
