In my role as Jury Director for the Regina International Film Festival, I write notes on the films in competition. This expands upon my jury notes. The jury, composed of 15 established and talented filmmakers and artists, unanimously declared this an extraordinary film, with several using the word "masterpiece."
I would like to see a statue of Captain Stavros Salomon erected on the southern coast of Lesbos, facing southeast, toward Izmir and beyond, toward Syria. Although he is merely a fictional character born from the mind of Brandt Andersen, Constantine Markoulakis's interpretation transcends reality to become the raw material of mythology.
Director: Brandt Andersen
Writer: Brandt Andersen
Stars: Yasmine Al Massri, Yahya Mahayni, Omar Sy
I have never seen a better or more moving performance, brimming with heroism and altruism. It is a benchmark performance, like Buster Keaton's in The General, Robert De Niro's in Taxi Driver, or Meryl Streep's in Sophie's Choice. And yet, it's barely noteworthy in a cast where every performance should be Oscar-worthy.
At the time of writing, the film is sweeping every award in every category at every festival it's entered. And yet, there's hardly any buzz, virtually no press coverage, and it hasn't even been mentioned on social media.
The director, instead of going out to seek news, traveled to Jordan to coordinate the delivery of aid to Gaza. He's a true activist, a real-life one, and also the best emerging filmmaker since Spielberg. If this film disappears without being seen or distributed, it would be like the Beatles releasing "Hey Jude" and no radio station playing it.
I hope this film enters the canon and becomes one of the greatest films of all time. I hope documentaries are made about its making. I hope every actor who appears in it becomes a star. I hope it is studied in every film school, that every department, from hair and makeup to set design and sound mixing, can be compared to the best of any film ever made.
I hope that screenwriter and director Brandt Andersen is recognized as one of the great auteurs of all time. I hope that every film or acting student watches this film repeatedly to analyze down to the smallest detail why it is so good and how it could have been so good on a budget that, although unstated, was probably equivalent to the catering budget of an average Hollywood film.
Finally, the film evokes such a powerful empathetic response that it will change people's lives, which is exactly the filmmaker's stated intention. I believe it could probably be used scientifically to accurately predict psychopathy in anyone who isn't affected by it.
It will undoubtedly unmask those who agree that refugees are criminals, terrorists, and cowards who abandon the task of rebuilding their countries—an agreement that exposes nothing less than their "enormous inhumanity."
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