Captains of Zaatari opens on a note of beauty, with exceedingly pretty shots of best friends Mahmoud and Fawzi kicking up dust as they bounce a soccer ball back and forth in the Zaatari refugee camp in northern Jordan.
Displaced with 80,000 other Syrians (more than half of whom are children) to this sprawling makeshift city, both teens dream of escaping the camp and playing professional soccer. A distant goal to Mahmoud and Fawzi, and one viewed as a pipe dream by Fawzi’s patient but put-upon family, this possibility suddenly grows excitingly close when a Qatari sports academy scouts the camp and recruits Mahmoud for training. Due to what the documentary presents as an age-related technicality, Fawzi is left behind, though coaches shortly thereafter allow him to join. From there, Captains of Zaatari shifts from a more interesting, slice-of-life look at the Za’atari refugee camp and its communities into an overtly inspirational sports doc,...
Displaced with 80,000 other Syrians (more than half of whom are children) to this sprawling makeshift city, both teens dream of escaping the camp and playing professional soccer. A distant goal to Mahmoud and Fawzi, and one viewed as a pipe dream by Fawzi’s patient but put-upon family, this possibility suddenly grows excitingly close when a Qatari sports academy scouts the camp and recruits Mahmoud for training. Due to what the documentary presents as an age-related technicality, Fawzi is left behind, though coaches shortly thereafter allow him to join. From there, Captains of Zaatari shifts from a more interesting, slice-of-life look at the Za’atari refugee camp and its communities into an overtly inspirational sports doc,...
- 2/2/2021
- by Isaac Feldberg
- The Film Stage
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