Here’s an intense and compelling story of redemption and self-sacrifice that unfolds in one of the world’s most dangerous regions: the Syria of Bashar al-Assad. While working as the Arabic-English interpreter for the 2000 Syrian Olympic team, Sami makes a fateful slip of the tongue that results in him defecting and making a life in Australia as a political refugee.
Eleven years later, Sami has already adapted to his new life, when the Syrian revolution starts. His older brother, following in the footsteps of their long-missing father, is arrested for demonstrating peacefully. Haunted by feelings of guilt for abandoning his family, Sami decides to make the perilous journey back to his turbulent homeland in order to find his brother. It’s a decision which is fraught with danger for his friends and loved ones, as well as for himself. This urgent political thriller offers a meditation on the power of language. (Alissa Simon)
Director Biography
Rana Kazkaz was born in Grenoble, France in 1971 and Rana Kazkaz and studied at Oberlin College, Carnegie Mellon University the Moscow Art Theatre and the Directing Workshop for Women at the American Film Institute. She is the director of the short films “Kemo Sabe” (2007), “Exquisite Corpse” (2008) and, with her husband Anas Khalaf, directed “Deaf Day” (2011), “Searching for the Translator” (2015), and “Mare Nostrum” (2016). The Translator (2020) is their debut feature.
Born in Syria but raised in France, Anas Khalaf studied at the Normandy Business School and worked in the oil and gas industry before turning to film. He is the director of the short film “Ham” (2014) as well as the films with his wife Rana Kazkaz.
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