Simple as Water

A tremendous effort on the part of the filmmakers and what generosity on the part of those featured to allow strangers to witness such intimate details of their lives.

The stories here - from Greece, Turkey, the United States, Syria and Germany - each approach the same crisis from a different vantage point and reveal yet another facet of an extraordinarily complex series of events, skillfully evoked by the elegant and understated storytelling.

When so much is happening in the world, we need testimony like this so we will not forget about the Syrian civil war and all the refugees forced from their homes and into our paths. May we be inspired to be generous as well.

This is a film experience I will not forget - stories of people who will stay with me, who are now part of my human family. The documentary gets to something about what war does to us, how it tears at families, something that maybe only film can express.

Kudos!

As long as we are surrounded by people who are against refugees, political asylums, immigrants in this world, we will have to continue to watch and feel the pain and suffering of families and children. They are JUST looking for a place of peace and comfort to live.

It is incomprehensible that in the 21st century, there are people and groups that act and support men like Trump, Bashar Al-Assad, Bolsonaro, Putin, Xi Jinping, Kim Jong-un, Boris Johnson, Andrzej Duda, Sergio Mattarella, Nicolás Maduro who separate families in the name of power. Even sadder must be the wives and children of these empathic and mentally ill leaders.

The documentary does not bring any new facts that we haven't seen in the news, media. It just follows the lives of Syrian refugees fighting for a place in the sun.

As "Simple As Water" (2021 release; 97 min.) opens, we see young kids playing as a woman (their mother) watches, but in the background we can tell that this is at/near a tent city. After the opening credits, we are introduced to the woman, Yasmin, and we are in "Athens, Greece". Turns out the woman and her 4 kids ages 9, 7, 6 and 5, are stranded in Athens as they try to get to German, where the husband/father already is. But that is easier said than done... At this point we are 10 min into the film.

Couple of comments: this is the latest documentary from producer-director Megan Mylan ("Lost Boys of Sudan"). Here she confronts us the viewers with what day-to-day life looks like for the millions of Syrians that have fled (were forced to flee) their home country resulting from the never-ending and brutal civil war, still going on to this very day. Everyone has heard of the Syrian refugees crisis, but I cannot immediately recall a prior in-depth attempt like this film at putting a human face on this terrible human tragedy. Watch for the incredible scene when Yasmin's 9 yr old daughter asks a bunch of penetrating questions to her mom, who then tries to give as comforting an answer as she can. At a certain point, the girl, now in tears, says "I don't want to go to Germany!' Just breaks your heart.

"Simple As Water" premiered earlier this week on HBO and is now available on HBO On Demand and on HBO Max (where I caught it). If you have any interest in the devastating effects of a refugee crisis the scale of which we have never seen before, I'd readily suggest you check out this deeply moving and human documentary, and draw your own conclusion.