TRIBECA FILM FESTIVAL 2016 // A REVIEW OF "AFTER SPRING"
In 2016, the total refugee count reached 60 million. This number is higher than the total number of persons displaced by the Second World War. This is a dire situation. Yet here we are in America dismissing the level of this problem because of our fear. We fear the refugee, because to us a refugee is not human, he is a problem. AFTER SPRING gives names and faces to a handful of these refugee families, and challenges the audience to stare straight into the eyes of families with nowhere to go. Don’t mistake this as a plea for pity. If anything, this film’s purpose is to expose the opposite. These people don’t want pity. They don’t want handouts. They want a chance to live a decent life in their homeland.
Just as abruptly as the civil war began in Syria, this film begins. Slow at first with discontent rumbling under the surface. Then suddenly there is a barrage of images of peaceful protests turned riot, cities burning and mass graves outside of schools. The first ten minutes are jarring and sickeningly necessary. This is the situation in Syria. Children are being targeted in their schools. Families are mercilessly and randomly shot on the way to the store. For most families, leaving their homeland was the only option. And with a 3 day walk through the rocky desert terrain, with children, elderly or the disabled, it certainly wasn’t a very good option either.
At the end of this horrifying trek lays the Zaatari refugee camp. This is where we meet two men who are working diligently to hold together a makeshift oasis nestled in the Jordan dessert. First we meet Kilian Kleinschmidt, a German who was brought in to help the Zaatari camp when it was a place of chaos. This film picks up near the end of Kleinschmidt’s rule, after he has established the order Zaatari needed so desperately. He is a red-cheeked man with a thick accent and an air of both calm humor and determined focus that explains his ability to simultaneously yell at a group of boys for carelessly throwing rocks and receive hugs and smiles in return. He can laugh with all of the displaced families he helps provide for, but there is no mistake that he is the boss. He decides every detail and does so without hesitation. On walks through the camp he is seen offering extra pieces of plastic to a family with a leak in the roof of their tent, buying pizza from one of the vendor’s stalls (owned and run by a family in the camp) or driving a truckload of kids to Taekwondo.
Yes that’s right, Zaatari has a full Taekwondo school.
Enter Lee Chul Soo who arrived at Zaatari in 2013, and although he could speak no English, he offered his services. Where Kleinschmidt focuses on the logistics of running the camp, Soo focuses on lifting the spirits of the people stranded there. Most of the kids in the camp skip school and Soo sees this as the potential for true disaster, creating a “lost generation”. With Taekwondo however, the boys and girls have a chance to learn something that empowers them. It teaches them to respect themselves and allows an outlet for the frustrations they feel from their displacement. Soo’s hope is that learning Taekwondo will help encourage these children to not feel so hopeless. They have much to offer, if only we will listen and put in the effort to not forget about them.
This film is a truly beautiful piece about the human condition and the need to be free. Directed by Ellen Martinez and Produced by Jon Stewart it sheds light on the true crisis that exists in a country far away, but with people who are no different than the neighbors we have here in the states. Let’s not forget, the Syrian people were fighting for democracy to begin with, a fight that if any should understand, it would be Americans.
CHRISENA'S VERDICT: MUST SEE
DIRECTED BY Ellen Martinez, Steph Ching CINEMATOGRAPHERS Jason Graham Howell, Frank Weiss
FINAL THOUGHTS: I truly believe that this is a must-see in every way. Get to know these people who are more than just “refugees."
Playing as part of the 2016 Tribeca Film Festival. For tickets and information: https://tribecafilm.com/festival/
CHRISENA RICCI is an actor, director and writer. Her current acting adventure has taken her to Alaska to perform in THE DAYS OF '98. Her most recent acting and writing project in New York City was with Girl Be Heard's EMBODI(ED). Other past credits include the role of Elizabeth in HONESTLY ABE: THE MUSICAL, and directing for Writopia lab's IT NEVER ENDS.