Of Fathers and Sons

Name: Of Fathers and Sons
Duration: 1 h 39 min

1hr 39m

1hr 39m
3.8/5 (723)
70

After his Sundance award-winning documentary Return to Homs, Talal Derki returned to his homeland where he gained the trust of a radical Islamist family,… More Details »

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US Trailer (02:11)

Movie Info & Cast

Director:

Talal Derki

Producer:

Rolf Bergmann, Claudia Bucher, Dan Cogan

Writer:

Talal Derki

Release Date:

Nov 16, 2018

Runtime:

1hr 39m

Synopsis

After his Sundance award-winning documentary Return to Homs, Talal Derki returned to his homeland where he gained the trust of a radical Islamist family, sharing their daily life for over two years. His camera focuses mainly on the children, providing an extremely rare insight into what it means to grow up with a father whose only dream is to establish an Islamic Caliphate. Osama (13) and his brother Ayman (12) are in the center of the story. They both love and admire their father and obey his words, but while Osama seems to follow the path of Jihad, Ayman wants to go back to school. The film captures the moment when the children have to let go of their youth and are finally turned into Jihadi fighters. No matter how close the war comes—one thing they have already learned: they must not cry.

Cast

Abu Osama
Ayman Osama
Osama Osama

Letterboxd User Reviews

3.8

RATINGS 6 FANS

3.8

Jan 22, 2019

The phrase “bringing a knife to a gunfight” never seemed more apt as I watched Talal Derki’s 2019 Oscar nominated documentary Of Fathers and Sons. Derki, a native Syrian who now resides in Berlin, has created a work of extreme importance as it relates to understanding…

40 Likes

Adam Davie

ليس من المستغرب الإحتفاء بفيلم (عن الأباء و الأبناء) لصاحبه طلال ديركي بعد تجربته الأولى (العودة إلى حمص) و ليس من المستغرب أيضاً فوزه بأوسكار أفضل فيلم وثائقي لاحقاً هذه السنة , فهذه المادة المقدمة أكثر نضجاً و تمكيناً من أي مادة أخرى على الصعيد الفني و الفكري التي تناولت…

39 Likes

Anas Zwahri

Feb 4, 2019

Most Americans see the terrorist groups of the Middle East as a faceless horror, but they are made up of real people who believe in their cause more than anything else in the world; it's terrifying. Watching these children's upbringing is beyond haunting. They are…

37 Likes

Tyler
Jul 8, 2023

Of Fathers and Sons is one of the most unsettling yet profound documentaries I’ve ever seen. It is very tragic to witness these boys raised in an environment of constant bullying and physical confrontation, led down only to become part of a war machine. There’s a…

34 Likes

Vonny Simarmata

Mar 3, 2024

Die Filmcrew Deutschlandchallenge 2024 Der in Damaskus geborene, mittlerweile in Berlin lebende, Talal Derki kehrte nach Syrien zurück und gab sich sls pro-dschihadistischer Journalist aus. Damit erlangte er das Vertrauen von Abu Osama, eines ideologiegefestigten…

29 Likes

12drue 🎞️

Mar 7, 2018

[6] This is the first film in recent memory that I came close to turning off, repeatedly, not out of boredom but because its subject was just too painful to watch. I made it through, but at times I found myself grappling with the ethics of a film that, by nature of its…

27 Likes

Michael Sicinski
Jul 15, 2020

an amazing documentary. watching this on the second leg of a back to back with THE OTHER SIDE was like a dopamine rush of reflective (filmmaker) and chaotic radical thought-processes (subjects). Talal Derki is a brilliant documentarian. Gotta peep his other film soon.

11 Likes

BilboBallin

Feb 15, 2019

"Which child do you prefer? The obedient one of course." Talal Derki's Of Fathers and Sons is a haunting documentary. Few documentaries manage to be this good, while also being demonstrably sad and revolting. In the place of sports, children practice military drills with…

11 Likes

Taylor Baker

Nov 13, 2018

Of Fathers and Sons opens with Talal Derki’s reflection on returning to his homeland in Northern Syria. “When I was a child, my father taught me to write down my nightmares to keep them from returning,” is heard in voice-over as slowed-down drone captured images of children…

11 Likes

Justine Smith

See All Reviews on Letterboxd.com

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Metacritic

metacritic

Based on 7 Critics

6.6

USER SCORE (11)

Generally favorable reviews based on 11 Reviews

Nov 23, 2018

Watching 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.

Brian Tallerico

RogerEbert.com

Nov 15, 2018

Of Fathers and Sons is a vital addition to the cultural picture of the Syrian conflict.

Daniel Schindel

The Film Stage