Peace by Chocolate

This as a movie based on real people and their story, during about 2015 through 2017. War in Syria has been going on since 2011 and this story focuses on one casualty, a family that made their living with a chocolate factory, which was destroyed by the bombing. So they managed to get approval to migrate to Canada, they were sent to Nova Scotia.

Ironically the featured actor, Hatem Ali, died of a heart attack just after filming and just before the movie was first released in 2021. He played the patriarch of the Syrian family, Issam, who they liked to say was the best chocolate maker in Syria. He spoke no English and only knew chocolate making. Through red tape, a non-interest loan, and the permitting process he was able to build a new chocolate factory.

Ayham Abou Ammar played his son, Tareq, who back in Syria was on track to become a physician. In Canada he found pursuing that dream more difficult than he thought it would be. But speaking fluent English he was able to work with his father through the process.

Good movie, my wife and I enjoyed it at home, streaming on Amazon Prime.

Entertaining movie that hits the right notes. Well worth the time to invest. Creates sympathy for the family and the good that exists in people.

But the behaviors were often absurd.

Son gets invited to speak by the Governor of Vermont but son, who is almost finished with medical school, doesn't know he needs a valid passport and visa to travel to the US? Didn't Syria have borders and rules?

Father is aware of need for permits for his factory, yet needs to be schooled by son that in Canada bribes won't solve permit issues?

And the fact that the towns existing chocolatier is concerned about new competition is portrayed as xenophobia?

I'm sure the real story is complex and heart warming but these absurdities detract from the film version.

What people can do when pressed is amazing. In 2015, the Hadhad family from Syria, by way of a refugee camp in Lebanon, arrived in Antigonish, Nova Scotia to reboot their lives. The 50-something father Issam (Hatem Ali) was a chocolate maker and factory owner; 20-something son Tarek (a strinkingly handsome Ayham Abou Ammar) was training in family medicine and would like to restart that in Canada, if he can. Those two form the lead roles and the primary story of a year in rebuilding their family's life.

It's a true story, and there's a book about them that I haven't read, so I am not sure just how much of the movie takes liberties with actual events or over-dramatizes them. But it's an expertly paced and edited piece of work, so lots of credit to director Jonathan Keijser and his team for that. If there's any big gap here, it's probably the lack of screen time given to the women of the family, particularly Tareq's mother.

Seven years later the Hadhads have a very well known chocolate factory that ships everywhere (we've ordered some of their products, and yes they are good!) As Tareq has said, they are among the lucky ones. For a story centering on the modern refugee experience that is equally universal and cuts a little harder and deeper, see 'Flee'. But they're both good.

The filmmakers did a very god job of translating this true story, of immigrants coming to a small Nova Scotian town, into an interesting drama and not a documentary. The acting is good. The situations are true to both the Syrian culture and the Maritime culture. If only they had learned to say Antigonish. Each time it was mispronounced our Dartmouth audience winced. My exit poll of about 10 people rated the show: 7, 7.5, seven 8s, and one 8.5. I give this movie a 7.9 (very good) out of 10. {Drama}

I was very much looking forward to watching the movie. This family's story is absolutely fantastic, and I definitely encourage you to read about their story or to watch the movie if you prefer. Unfortunately, however, I found the movie way too repetitive, focusing throughout most of it on the opposite expectations from the son and his father. It felt like I watched 4 or 5 times a very similar scene about their opposite personal wishes (which very negatively affects my rating). I believe the movie could have made me feel a lot more engaged by including more diversity of scenes, for instance about many others impacts of their integration in Canada and in the Nova Scotia town instead.