
Talal Derki returns to his homeland where he gains the trust of a radical Islamist family, sharing their daily life for over two years. His camera is providing an extremely rare insight into what it means to grow up in an Islamic Caliphate.... (Full plot summary below)
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Talal Derki returns to his homeland where he gains the trust of a radical Islamist family, sharing their daily life for over two years. His camera is providing an extremely rare insight into what it means to grow up in an Islamic Caliphate.
Leave your thoughts about Of Fathers and Sons.
| Spirituality and PracticeFrederic and Mary Ann BrussatWatching boys being immersed in violence and trained to become killers as part of their role as Al Qaeda members. |
| It's Just MoviesRon WilkinsonThe reigning champion of documentary access, director Derki shows us a future without a future, war in the Middle East. |
| Big Apple ReviewsHarvey S. KartenAn audacious writer-director risks his life in Syria to put a face on a jihadist, a man who can elicit some sympathy even from Americans. |
| CinemalogueTodd JorgensonBy now, multiple movies have examined the military conflict in Syria from ground level, but this documentary offers a fresh perspective. |
| Gay City NewsSteve EricksonEvery scene in Syrian director Talal Derki's Of Fathers and Sons is carefully placed to make a point. |
| RogerEbert.comBrian TallericoWatching young men become militarized is one of those gut-churning documentary topics. And yet the main subject of Of Fathers and Sons would argue that this is the only path to freedom and to happiness. The best parts of Talal Derki’s award-winning film not only seek to understand that but to reason with it. |
| Los Angeles TimesRobert AbeleThe nuances in Derki’s portraits are what deepen the elements that could easily have been a distancing turnoff. |
| New York TimesBen KenigsbergOf Fathers and Sons is ultimately more impressive for its access than it is revealing of drives or beliefs. If Derki’s goal was to capture what causes ideology to spread, he and his camera look without seeing. |
| Slant MagazineDerek SmithThe film's verité approach risks humanizing Abu Osama, but we eventually gain a complex understanding of the banality of his evil. |
| Eye for FilmAmber WilkinsonWhat makes the film all the more poignant is the fact that the children are, of course, despite all this, like kids anywhere else. |