Interview with Children on the Frontline's Marcel Mettelsiefen

9 May 2016

 

How did you first end up filming in Syria?

I used to be a news photographer, and during the Arab Spring I was in Libya and Egypt, and we quickly realised that Syria was starting to become an issue as well. So knowing that it would be difficult to get a journalist visa for Syria, I came up with a trick. My mother is South American, and my name is actually Jorge-Marcel – nobody actually calls me Jorge – so I applied using that name. And I was still in medical school, so I went to the Syrian Embassy in Berlin, and told them I was a doctor called Jorge and I wanted to go and do a language course in Damascus, but was worried about whether it would be safe. And they said it was safe there, and they gave me a multiple entry visa to Syria for a year. So I was one of very, very few journalists worldwide who was able to go and work there undercover in April 2011. I was able to see the whole thing, starting from a peaceful uprising and developing into a sectarian civil war.

How did you end up working with the family who have been the subjects of your two films?

I got to know Aleppo pretty well, and I had a lot of contacts, and I made a little film for Channel 4 News called The Agony of Aleppo. It featured a little boy called Mohammed, who was 13 and working in the hospital, and I realised there were a lot of children playing a very important role in Syria. So I pitched the idea of a film from the viewpoint of children, and I started to look for characters. And I went back in mid-2013 to find characters. And I met a kid, Aboude, who was a poster boy for the revolution, singing revolutionary songs, and I thought he was great and followed him for some time. It was a crowded area, and after that I felt like I needed another environment, a more frontline environment. I knew a man, Abu Ali, from previous trips, and he was commanding on the frontline, exactly where I wanted to film. So I asked him if there were still children in the area. And he said the only children there were his own. So he introduced me to Helen and to Sara, the oldest and the youngest, and I knew I’d found my characters.

Why do you think they agreed to be filmed?

I think for two reasons. First of all, it's an extraordinary family, with an extraordinary father and mother. The father chose three names, Helen, Sara and Farah, a Muslim, a Jewish and a Christian name, for his daughters, in order to make a political statement. This was why he accepted me to film something you very rarely see – the inner life of a predominantly female Muslim family. Especially in modern Syria, which has become more and more conservative. He knew extremists were hijacking his revolution, and so he gave me permission to film his wife. That was so rare in Syria.

What did the family make of the film?

I was only able to film them for a short time before I had to leave. I came back to try and make the footage I had into a film, and it turned out we were able to make a film, and it was quite strong. We started to win a lot of awards. The film had strong interviews and some amazing moments. We really milked the material we had. We used everything. There was just enough. And I realised what an extraordinary family this was. So in November 2013, just a couple of months after I left the first time, Abu Ali was kidnapped. ISIS showed their real face. Or me, as a journalist, it seemed impossible to go back in. But I realised I needed to keep filming them. So in July 2014 I was able to go back. Other journalists had gone out and come back again, so I figured it was okay to risk it again. And that’s when I was able to show them the film. They were pretty amazed and crying because they were seeing their dad. It was a very emotional moment.

How did you find they had changed since you'd last seen them?

Children are children, and they adapt. These children had such a tremendous world of imagination and fantasy, such poetry, that they were able to transform everything into their own world and still remain happy children. They weren't able to play outside anymore, so they'd started to play inside the flat. ISIS came and made their lives so much more difficult, but they just accepted it and out it into their lives. The fact that their father was gone – they never believed, and still don't believe, that he is dead. They're pretty sure they’re going to see him again. So they just keep on going.

But for their mother, it’s a different story.

Yes. She was already a broken woman. They weren't living on the frontline anymore because they were betrayed by someone around them. And the city changed – barrel bombs started to flatten the entire city and a lot of people left.

How much time did you spend with the family this time?

In August 2014, during Ramadan, I was able to go in and stay with them for eight days. Every second of it, I was afraid of being kidnapped. It was almost impossible to film, because I had to be very, very careful undercover. Filmed it all on my own, I was producing it on my own because nobody wanted to take the risk. On the last day, it was Ramadan, we had the evening meal, and I wanted to film it, but my battery was dead. I realised my spare one was in the car down on the street. So I went down to pick up my camera bag, and a pretty big bomb exploded. We were blown by a pressure wave into the doorway of the house, and we were so lucky. The family thought we were gone, they assumed we were dead. And when I went back inside, I just put the camera on a tripod and let it film. The children were freaking out, and it was at that point the mother decided they just couldn’t stay there anymore. It was too dangerous.

Have you formed a close bond with them? Or do you have to try and remain dispassionate?

It’s impossible to be dispassionate. This is the biggest challenge I had.

The family decided to relocate to Germany. Did they ask you what it was like there? What did you tell them?

It was more about them asking how to get there. From that day in August, it took the mother four months to really decide to leave. She did not want to become one out of 1.5 million refugees in Turkey. The refugee camps were full, the rest of the country was too expensive for them, and they had no money. But Germany decided to take 30,000 refugees – this was before the huge wave of refugees. So I told them there was this opportunity, but that it was really not certain. They would need to look into their files. But if they could prove that your husband might be killed by ISIS, you’re a widow, and you have four kids under 13 years, you’ll have a good chance. So they went to Turkey, applied to go to Germany, and had to wait three-and-a-half months, and finally they got a positive answer.

How are they coping with their new life?

They're coping very, very well. As soon as they arrive in Germany, they're treated the same as German citizens. All of them are given an education, healthcare, and a monthly welfare of 380 euros per person, per month. So four children and the mother, it's around 1900-a-month. So they’'e doing pretty well. But it’s important to remember – and this is an important lesson for people in Germany and Europe to think about – they would never have left their country if they absolutely didn't have to. They have such a huge, huge connection to their country. They just had to leave because otherwise they would have been killed. That's the only reason they're in Europe. They don't come here for the money. Their mother risked everything for her country. She and Abu Ali came to regard the Assad regime as so criminal that they were prepared to risk everything – even their children – for revolution. And now the mother has to realise that it was all for nothing, that the revolution has been hijacked by a monster. So then she had to make the decision to leave, and to take on the challenges of being in a new country.

Do the children have a chance of having a normal, happy life?

Oh, definitely, I think so, yes.

What moments will stay with you the most from your time filming these programmes?

So many. As a filmmaker I was privileged to have a family that was so full of poetry. To have a little girl, Sarah, saying, when she's leaving, that she took out a part of her heart in order to put it on the wall for her daddy. Or a girl like Helen, when she’s swimming at the beach, and I drag her out and say "Please say something to my camera," and she comes up with saying "I’m not swimming, I’m dreaming, and the waves are eating us up," it’s just pure poetry. They gave me so many moments I will never forget.

Were you proud of the German reaction to the refugee crisis?

Yeah, definitely. There is a fear connected to this. Germany put a lot of effort into doing the right thing –my worry is that there could be a backlash, if a terrorist attack happens in Germany, and everyone says "But wait, why are you doing this after we've helped you so much." That's what happened after Cologne, and that's exactly what the extremists want – to destroy the welcoming German attitude.

Children on the Frontline, Tuesday the 10th of May at 10pm on Channel 4