Director-Activist Brandt Andersen On Making Omar Sy Starrer ‘The Strangers’ Case’ About Syrian Refugees: “It’s A By-Product Of All The Strong Emotions I Was Experiencing And All The Injustices That Were Taking Place”
deadline.comEXCLUSIVE: Last month, when Brandt Andersen’s debut feature film The Strangers’ Case won the Amnesty International Film Award at Berlinale, it marked the recognition of a long and impassioned journey for the writer, director and long-time producer as he sought to marry film with his extensive activism background.
The drama, which world premiered as a Special Gala at Berlin, is an extended version of his Oscar-shortlisted short film Refugee and stars French actor Omar Sy and Lebanese-born Yasmine Al Massri.
It’s a searing account of the refugee exodus sparked by the Arab Spring and ensuing Syrian Civil War. Andersen, whose producing credits include Everest, Lone Survivor and Golden Globe nominee The Flowers of War, writes and directs The Strangers’ Case and drew inspiration from people he encountered while working with humanitarian agencies in Turkey, Greece, Italy, Jordan and Syria.
The film follows the chain reaction of events involving five different families in four different countries after tragedy strikes a Syrian family in Aleppo: a doctor (Al Massri) and her daughter, who come home following a chaotic shift at an Aleppo hospital; a soldier who witnesses heinous crimes towards men, women and children in the service of the Syrian regime; a smuggler in Turkey, (Sy) who tries desperately to make ends meet for his young son while also trying to save enough money to afford his own escape; a poet from a Turkish refugee camp who barters for space on an overcrowded boat with his young family; and a Greek coast guard captain who spends his days and nights rescuing sinking lifeboats full of migrants. “I started going over to Turkey and Greece right during the Arab Spring when refugees were leaving Syria because they
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