SYNOPSIS

Watan (Homeland) is a 52-minute documentary that looks beyond the rhetoric and into the human cost of the Syrian refugee crisis. Intimate portraits of refugees in the camps and cities of Jordan reveal a very human struggle for normalcy and dignity in a situation that is everything but. 

Seven years. Six million displaced people. The biggest humanitarian emergency of our time.

The Syrian refugee crisis remains at the forefront of the global consciousness: as statistics, as photographs, as a bargaining chip in international politics. But inside the camps real people settle in to a life in limbo.

Watan explores two of the biggest refugee camps in Jordan - Zaatari and Azraq – along with neighbouring city Jerash, to paint intimate portraits of the men, women and children who have found themselves there.

Through observation of daily life, Watan builds a simple yet powerful series of interwoven stories that go beyond the statistics to find the human heart of the refugee crisis.

These are stories of sadness, fear, beauty and surprises: from a young woman raising a family that is not hers, to a seventeen-year-old concreter, an all-women’s filmmaking class, a boy who finds meaning through football, and more.

Watan seeks to inspire action through connection, empathy and recognition, in a way that allows these people to speak for themselves.

It shines a much-needed light on the human stories at the centre of the global debate of immigration and asylum, giving a voice to the Syrian refugees in Jordan.

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