Marcel Mettelsiefen's Film, Children Of Syria

Marcel Mettelsiefen’s documentary “Children of Syria” tells one family’s story of surviving in Syria’s war-torn city of Aleppo. After their father is kidnapped, the family begins their journey to Germany to escape the violence in Syria and start a new life. The documentary, which debuted on the TV program “Frontline”, films the family and their experience for over three years. The hour long segment mainly focuses on the children Sara, Farah, Helen and Mohammed. Producers used multiple techniques to help the audience understand the struggle the family is going through as we watch them on the screen. Producers conducted intimate sit-down interview with the subjects which helped tell their story in an informative and engaging way. Being able to listen to their perception of what’s going on around them was very intriguing because you wouldn’t expect children at their age to be able to speak so openly about some of the topics that were discussed. …show more content…
At one point during the interviews producers ask 7-year-old Farah what was one of her favorite things to do and she explained that her favorite thing to do was to help her father make bombs. She was even able to identify the difference between rockets and tank shells by the sound that they make.
Producers also used a lot of b-roll footage of them following the family members around in the city and in their neighborhood. Using those visual elements was a very effective way to illustrate to the audience how dangerous it was in Aleppo. The children talk about how the city is like a ghost town, and when you watch the b-roll footage it only confirms those very statements. The city was in complete shambles and most of the homes were abandoned. Some of the homes were even torn in half. There a moment in the documentary where Mohammed and his friend are sitting in an apartment, but the other half is