"Upon reaching Cologne, however, it quickly became apparent to the directors that the most fraught and complicated portion of Israa's exodus was just beginning. The journey from Aleppo had almost been as dangerous as it would have been for her family to stay there, but neither artillery shells, overcrowded boats, nor the constant threat of being sent back were as difficult for the girl to survive as the twin pains of exile and assimilation."
"Azzam and MacInnes would continue to film Israa for another 10 years, only stopping - as we see in the recently shot bookends of the sweeping, humane, and deeply heartsick documentary they've cut together from that decade of footage - when she was able to safely visit Syria again in 2025. "War is not the hardest thing a person can go through," Israa's voiceover intones as she looks at the bombed out ruins of the neighborhood where she was raised. "It's not as hard as what comes after.""
Filmmakers Itab Azzam and Jack MacInnes met Israa, an 11-year-old Syrian refugee selling cigarettes in Izmir in 2015. They followed her family as they fled toward Germany, documenting the perilous trek and arrival in Cologne. The most difficult phase proved to be exile and assimilation rather than battlefield dangers; artillery, overcrowded boats, and deportation threats were surpassed by the twin pains of displacement and cultural integration. The directors filmed Israa for ten years, ending when she could safely visit Syria in 2025. Israa reflects that war is not the hardest thing; what follows can be harder. Musical scoring sometimes flattens emotional texture, yet the film remains raw and absorbing.
Read at IndieWire
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