Today, nearly 90% of the population of Damascus, Syria, lives below the poverty line, relying on a salary of under $2.15 a day to survive in a ravaged city. Through the immense suffering, the resilience of the human spirit continues to ring, and Mokhammed Aldridi’s haunting observational documentary shown at the Ann Arbor Film Festival, “Find One Who Was Not Born of Woman That One is Your Father,” sheds light on the daily battles of those living on the streets of Damascus.
A common thread that weaves itself throughout the film is the ties between the devastation in Damascus and religion. The full quote that inspired the title comes from Saying 15 of the Gospel of Thomas: “When you see him who was not born of woman, fall upon your faces and worship him, for he is your father.” This passage urges believers to dedicate their lives to finding God, saying that faith will carry them through even the worst of times. In the film, a boy opens a letter with this saying written, and this ideology permeates through the story as a symbol of enduring hope: Through faith, a better life is promised.
Aldridi’s documentary is best described as a series of vignettes — small fragments that, together, paint a portrait of those living on society’s margins. The film focuses its attention primarily on those who have some form of physical disability: from blindness to bent backs and malformed hands. However, the film never comes across as exploitative or pity-seeking. Instead, it shows people in their daily lives, playing cards at a cafe, selling fruit in the market or sleeping on the streets. Adridi sought to capture a realistic image of Damascus, and he managed this by never sugar-coating or cherry-picking exclusively positive or negative images. Instead, he shows every side of humanity, and together, these images form the character of Damascus itself, alive and fighting still.
Within the fragments, small narratives emerge, giving the audience something to clutch onto. A boy talks to the camera directly, telling us how his father found work in Maaloula, and when he arrives, he will send a white pigeon back to Damascus. Each day, the boy ventures out to the streets and feeds the pigeons, waiting for the day a white one will land, and he will place a pearl necklace around it. For the rest of the film, the white pigeon remains a symbol of hope, a promise that better days are ahead. Toward the end, the white pigeon arrives from Maaloula, bringing a glimmer of light within the darkness.
Many of these images stand out as powerful symbols that will linger with the audience long after leaving the screening. A man, unable to walk, crawls along the streets as those in cars whir past him. No one stops to help or offer transportation, and it stands as an image of class disparities and a sentiment of disregard present in those who are more well-off. This simple image represents the heart of the film: the prosperous neglect the destitute.
Another notable image was a young boy who carried his younger brother through the unrelenting streets of Damascus. Despite being in obvious discomfort, he persists, as his brother is unable to walk. It’s a small act of kindness that reveals the compassion present in even the most grueling situations and continues Aldridi’s goal of showcasing every facet of life in the Middle East.
There is a recurring motif of goats; most striking is the black goat, which the camera focuses on for an extended period of time and appears throughout the documentary. There are several ways of interpreting this motif, each of which adds a layer to the film’s deeper purpose. Goats are resilient and self-sufficient, a parallel to the industriousness of the people of Damascus. However, more in line with the religious nature of the film, it draws parallels to The Parable of the Sheep and the Goats. In these verses, the goat represents those who ignore the needy and reject God. It feels as though the goats are looking through the camera at the viewer, a quiet commentary on the blind eye that many turn on the underprivileged.
Toward the end of the film, in another vignette, an impoverished man kills goats, brutally cutting their throats, in order to sell their heads for money. Perhaps the man is too busy focusing on survival to worry about symbols, or it’s a warning to those who ignore the needy, an act of judgment like that in the parable. Either way, the image is powerful and will stick in the audience’s heads.
The film closes slowly on a wall covered in birds, a powerful symbol of entrapment, yet the hope that one day, like those birds, some may fly over the wall. “Find One Who Was Not Born of Woman That One is Your Father” highlights the quiet strength and resilience that the people of Damascus showcase every day while opening viewers’ eyes to the real struggles of those living on the margins.
Daily Arts Writer Taylor Koski can be reached at tckoski@umich.edu.
