- Director
- Ali El Arabi
- Rating
- n/a
- Running Time
- 73 minutes
- Release Date
- n/a
Overall Score
Rating Summary
This will be one of many reviews during this year’s Sundance Film Festival, to keep up with our latest coverage, click here.
The Syrian refugee crisis is an ongoing problem affecting the world today. Despite their unfortunate circumstances, there are still some good stories amongst countless others of pain and hardship. Captains of Zaatari is the latest documentary about one of those good stories. Featuring impressive access of the Zaatari Refugee Camp in Jordan, the film has a surprising cinematic feel as it tells the story of two best friends trying to live out their dreams of overcoming their situations to become professional football (or soccer) players. Living in near-poverty in a refugee camp, football was their way out to make something for themselves and hopefully support their families. With their futures uncertain and their opportunities limited, all Fawzi and Mahmoud had was football. Their love of football was certainly infectious to watch as the film managed to catch all the intimate moments, from the highest of highs to the lowest of lows.
Little did Fawzi and Mahmoud know, they would be given a lifeline in the form of a renowned Qatari sports academy who visited their camp and offered them the opportunity to live out their dreams when their local Zaatari team is invited to a football camp. Seeing them get to live out their dreams and be normal teens for a change, if only temporarily, was fun to watch as was seeing them come together as a real team. In the end, the trip served up plenty of life lessons for these teens and seeing them and the love of the game grow over the course of the film was compelling to watch. With a relatively short running time, Captains of Zaatari only offers a mere slice of the whole story which is sure to leave some viewers wanting more as it is over in the blink of an eye.
Either way, Captains of Zaatari is certainly a hopeful watch in these troubled times.
still courtesy of Sundance
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The EIC of the coincidentally-named keithlovesmovies.com. A Canadian who prefers to get out of the cold and into the warmth of a movie theatre.
