Watani: My Homeland

The documentary follows a family with four children living on the front line in Aleppo, in the middle of the war. When their father is taken by ISIS the mother decides to leave the country, and the family settles in a small town in Germany. Shot over three years, the film shows that escaping the war starts another struggle: understanding the past, accepting the present, getting used to a new life and holding on to the idea of belonging somewhere. The forty minute production, one of several films Marcel Mettelsiefen has made about the Syrian war, was shot between 2013 and 2016. It was nominated for best documentary short at the 89th Academy Awards and won Peabody, Grierson and Emmy awards.