In Of Fathers and Sons, filmmaker Talal Derki returns to his homeland of Syria, where he gains the trust of a radical Islamist family. Derki has the privilege of an extremely rare insight into what it means to grow up in an Islamic caliphate. The film focuses on two sons, Osama (13 years old) and his brother Ayman (12 years old), who both love and admire their father Abu Osama.
However, while Osama seems content to follow the path of Jihad, Ayman wants to go back to school. Of Father and Sons was the winner of the Grand Jury Prize for World Documentary at the Sundance Film Festival, and was nominated for Best Documentary Feature at the 91st Academy awards. This is a very powerful documentary which offers us an insight into the lives of fundamentalists and the complexities of a patriarchy.
Director Talal Derki, who was born in Damascus, Syria of Kurdish descent, identifies as a liberal Muslim. In order to gain access to the family featured in his documentary, he proceeded to pass as one of radicals and lived with the family for 2 years. As he explained in an interview with Indie Wire, “I wanted to tell the story from inside the world of Syria. The catastrophe of the mind of the new generation was for me the most important.”
Of Father and Sons, isn’t necessarily just about life in Syria, but addresses a much more global issue. The issue of extreme toxic masculinity and the effects that it can have on the family structure and unit.
The sons of Abu Osama, are shown to be simply children who have been conditioned and exposed to this way to life. No one is necessarily born ‘wrong’ or ‘bad’ but it is often situations and events that occur in their childhood that shape their world view and who they become as adults. We see how the boys are being subjected to a world broken by war and bloodshed, they make ‘bombs’ and play in rusty old tanks, just to pass the time.
The boys seem alone and isolated in the world, after being taken out from school by their father. They only have each other for company and there’s a real sadness in this isolation. They idolize their father, who is affectionate towards them, but can deal out swift, harsh punishment should the boys misbehave.
Watching the boys interactions with their father, as they listen hooked to his every word; one can only wonder “where is their mother?” There is an apparent lack of women in the documentary, and for good reason too. Derki wasn’t allowed to film the women, due to the Jihadists strict treatment towards women. When Abu Osama, who is injured in a mine blast, returns home, his wife expresses her sorrow only to be told to “shut up”. He doesn’t appear concerned by his wife’s reaction but comforts his eldest son.
There’s so much to take away from this documentary, and watching the father’s devotion to his sons reminded me of Xavier Legrand’s Custody. Fatherhood can blind some men, and they use as an excuse to behave in certain ways, exploiting the trust and loyalty of their own children.
Of Fathers and Sons is not an easy documentary to watch. This is reality, and it’s brutal. At one point, Derki is with Abu Osama on sniper duty, and there comes the fateful moment where his subject shoots a person off-screen. Derki has spoken about his inner turmoil and frustration that he was unable to do or say anything about this senseless act of violence. “As a filmmaker, as a witness, I don’t have any power to change him or to comment on what is going on the ground.” Derki also witnesses a sheep being killed, and the boys playing with the animal’s head afterwards.
Out of all the documentaries I have watched, this was one of the most incredibly hard scenes I have ever had to watch. It’s not necessarily the brutal shocking violence of seeing a live creature being killed on-screen, but rather the casual attitude of the family and the young boys gathering around watching intently.
What Derki has maned to do and achieve with his documentary is nothing short of impressive. He has allowed us to gain a unique insight into the home lives of these extremists and to see how radicalism is spread from one generation to the next. Terrorists aren’t born with terror in their hearts, but are rather molded by the world around them, and the best thing we can all do is to educate individuals when they’re young to avoid the sins of their fathers occurring all over again.
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