http://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-34296328
A Syrian Love Story
A British documentary maker Sean McAllister made headlines in 2011 when he was seized by the Syrian secret police. His capture meant the couple he was filming at the time had to flee the country, but that didn't stop them making the documentary together after his release. But where Sean was held in prison he said you could hear the screams of Syria's revolutionaries. It was October 2011 and the country was slipping deeper into war. McAllister, a film-maker, had been jumped on by secret police in Damascus, blindfolded, and brought to the prison, where he became a witness to the regime's brutal treatment of protesters and activists. When he was released, McAllister's testimony made headlines, but at the time his thoughts were focused on the family he had been filming for a documentary, which is now on release in the UK. A Syrian Love Story follows two married activists, Amer Daoud and Raghda Hasan, and their children over a five-year period. When McAllister was detained in 2011, the authorities took his equipment, which contained footage of the couple speaking out against the regime and organising protests. But when the police demanded to know where they were, McAllister misdirected them, giving Daoud and Hasan time to flee to Lebanon. "At that point I felt terribly guilty, but then after that for the next year it was terrible, because they were then suffering, stuck in Beirut," says McAllister. Having become very much part of the story, McAllister continued to film the family - and they did nothing to stop him. "I actually thought Sean was a window of hope," says Daoud. "Because we are political activists. As political activists you have a higher goal in life, you have a message that you want to convey and communicate as well." McAllister had arrived in Syria in 2008, seeking a break from his work in war zones and curious about life in what he calls a "functioning dictatorship". For eight months, he searched for a story that would allow him to get beyond the picture-postcard image of Syria that officials presented to tourists. Then, one night in a park in Damascus, he met Daoud, who told him: "If you really want to make a film about Syria, come and film me." McAllister had found his story about Syria - and it was a love story. A member of the Palestinian Liberation Organisation, Daoud had spent three years in prison, where he had formed a relationship with the woman in the adjacent cell. Raghda Hasan's background was very different - she came from the same Alawite sect as the president - but she was also a dissident, a communist revolutionary. The two made a small hole in the wall separating them and, after months of communicating through it, they fell in love. When they were released from prison, they got married and had two children together. "All we wanted was to be together all the time - and nothing would separate us, even death," recalls Daoud. But at the time McAllister met him and his children, Hasan was in prison once again for writing a novel based on the couple's relationship, among other things. Hasan was released again in 2011 as part of an amnesty, one of the Syrian government's responses to the Arab Spring. But not long afterwards, the family had to make their escape to Lebanon and it was there that the marriage began to break down. Unable to live at a distance from the revolution she had longed for and worked towards, Hasan returned to Syria. And without her, her husband and children were unable to seek asylum in Europe. The family eventually reunited and sought refuge in France, but exile - the life of the refugee - did not bring happiness. In long, claustrophobic scenes shot in the couple's apartment - the Sheffield documentary festival, which awarded the film its top prize earlier this year, drew parallels with the work of Ingmar Bergman - the viewer is witness to the couple's rancour and mutual recrimination. There is an affair. There is a suicide attempt. The story gained lots of viewers. During everything that was happening it was hard for the couple to still go through with the documentary. The film was finally going to get released in 2013 until another unexpected development- the sudden upsurge of public interest in the plight of Syrian refugees.
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