‘We the Animals’ tops Spirit Awards nominations

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‘Of Fathers and Sons’ bleak look at kids training for jihad

A group of children giggle as they play in a dusty, barren landscape near their home in northern Syria, but this is no ordinary game of catch, for their ball is a live bomb.

The macabre game of chicken is one of the most blood-chilling scenes in “Of Fathers and Sons”, filmmaker Talal Derki’s disturbing new expose on the grip of Islamism in his native Syria.

“This is the scene that broke my heart,” Derki told AFP in an interview in Los Angeles this week, recalling the blood-chilling episode.

“I was seeing my six-year-old boy through the lens.”

For more than two years, the celebrated filmmaker lived with an Islamist family in a war-ravaged region bordering Turkey, focusing his camera primarily on the children to capture their gradual radicalization.

The result is a bleak and haunting 98-minute documentary that gives viewers rare insight into the brutal daily life of jihadists, who in recent years have sown fear across the globe.

“I call it the nightmare,” the 41-year-old filmmaker said, referring to the spread of the jihadist movement.

The film, released in the United States on Thursday, won the world cinema documentary competition at the Sundance Film Festival earlier this year.

Derki’s previous documentary, “Return to Homs”, won the grand jury prize at Sundance in the same category in 2014.

“Of Father and Sons” tracks Abu Osama, one of the founders of al-Nusra, an al-Qaeda affiliate group, as he leads two of his eight sons – Osama, 13, named after dad’s personal hero Osama bin Laden, and Ayman, 12, named after the current al-Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri – down the path to jihad.

Berlin-based Derki said he gained Abu Osama’s trust by posing as a war photographer sympathetic to the jihadist cause and lived on-and-off with the family for two and a half years, sharing their most intimate moments.

Violence

The horror in the film doesn’t come from violence and blood and gore, Derki said. Rather the viewer is sickened as the documentary charts the children’s brutal transformation from innocent youths to jihadi fighters.

“This is a film that makes you understand how the brain functions,” Derki said. “You have the horror in the language, in the education, in a single moment.”

He said he is still haunted by several scenes in his film, notably the one with the children playing with the makeshift bomb.

In another scene, one of the children proudly boasts to Abu Osama – which means father of Osama in Arabic – about killing a little bird.

“We put his head down and cut it off, like how you did it, father, to that man,” the boy proclaims.

The bombed-out desert landscape that the family calls home and the fact that the family’s women are never shown or even heard adds to the sense of despair throughout the film.

Also:

LOS ANGELES: Coming-of-age parable “We the Animals” led the pack of indie movies tipped for Oscars glory as the Film Independent Spirit Awards nominations kicked off Hollywood’s annual prize-giving season on Friday.

The dreamlike drama – based on the novel of the same name by Justin Torres – follows brothers Manny, Joel and Jonah as they make their way through childhood, pushing against the roller-coaster love of their parents.

The film was nominated in five categories, including best first feature, cinematography, editing and supporting actor for Raul Castillo and the “someone to watch” award for director Jeremiah Zagar.

Comedy “Eighth Grade”, religious drama “First Reformed” and brutal crime thriller “You Were Never Really Here” followed with four nominations each, including a nod for each for best feature.

Horror remake “Suspiria” was selected to receive the Robert Altman Award, which is bestowed upon one film’s director, casting director and cast. (AFP)

The nominations were announced in Hollywood by British actress Gemma Chan, who starred in breakout summer rom-com “Crazy Rich Asians”, and “Saturday Night Live” alum Molly Shannon, a previous winner.

“This year’s nominees reflect the bold originality that is the heart of independent film,” said Film Independent President Josh Welsh. (AFP)

By Jocelyne Zablit

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