[ Translator ] We need to check the mike. Please, say something.
[ Translator ] Like what did you eat for breakfast today?
[ Almas ] I still haven't eaten anything. No breakfast, lunch, or dinner.
Neither me, nor the kids, nor their dad.
The civil war in Syria began in 2011 and quickly engulfed
the entire country. As a result of the violence, millions of
Syrians were forced to flee their homes. Neighbouring Lebanon
became the unwilling host for 1.2 million Syrian refugees.
GENERATION STANDSTILL
[ GEO ] THE MARBLE FACTORY
[ Almas ] My name's Almas.
[ Almas ] I've come from Syria, from the Idlib province.
[ Almas ] We were farmers.
[ Almas (Um Walid), Refugee From Idlib, Syria ] We grew wheat, oat, olives.
[ Almas ] That was our work. Our land was our fortune.
[ Almas ] Before everything started.
[ Almas ] But after all these events, the olives dried on the trees.
[ Almas ] There was no one to pick them.
[ Madlin, 11 Years Old ] We had an olive tree and a garden in front of the house,
where roses grew.
[ Madlin ] And a lemon tree in the courtyard,
and two pomegranate trees.
[ Madlin ] We also grew vegetables.
[ Almas ] Nothing can be better than the life we had in Syria.
[ Almas ] Before all this, of course. Before then life was completely different.
[ Almas ] Different life, different food, different clothes.
[ Almas ] And we were different. We were happy.
[ Almas ] They didn't bring us bread, but we made dough ourselves,
and baked our own bread in the oven.
[ Almas ] For two years we watched war on TV saying, 'It'll be ok'.
And then it came straight to us.
[ Madlin ] Once Dad was in the olive garden,
and Mum was kneading the dough.
[ Madlin ] A missile came flying in.
[ Madlin ] There was a cow in front of our house.
[ Madlin ] Had it not been for her, the house would have been destroyed.
[ Madlin ] The missile hit the cow and tore it in two pieces.
[ Madlin ] Both pieces flew in opposite directions.
[ Almas ] My cousin and my father worked in a field in Deraa.
[ Almas ] They stumbled upon a mine.
[ Almas ] He was a young guy. Same age as my husband.
[ Almas ] He got married just a year ago.
[ Almas ] We buried him at dawn, and his wife gave birth at sundown.
[ Almas ] We received his body in pieces.
[ Almas ] Less than 10 days later my other cousin was killed.
[ Almas ] A shard blew his head off.
[ Almas ] I couldn't stand it anymore and fled to Lebanon.
[ Almas ] Everything we had burnt down.
[ Almas ] We left the cow that gave 30 litres of milk.
[ Almas ] The ground crumbled under our feet.
[ Almas ] We left everything.
[ Almas ] There are 12 of us. It's quite a lot.
[ Almas ] Walid is 16 years old.
[ Almas ] I also have Khaled, who is 14, Jahid is 12.
[ Almas ] There's also Madlin. She suffered an electrical shock. She's 11.
[ Almas ] Then there's Mohammed. He was injured by metal rods. He's nine.
[ Almas ] Hassan, he's also nine. Faris, he's four. See, his eyes are sore.
[ Almas ] And I also have Rosa. She's two.
[ Almas ] And I'm currently eight months pregnant.
[ Almas ] If I give birth now, I will stay inside.
[ Almas ] This machine will be working over here, cutting stones.
[ Almas ] And here another one. And another near the door.
[ Almas ] If we wanted to rent a place elsewhere, we wouldn't be able to do it.
[ Almas ] Renting the cheapest house here costs $250-350.
[ Almas ] Show us where you fell.
[ Almas ] Fell into the hole. And it was full of water.
[ Almas ] I came here to put linen out to dry on the stone.
[ Almas ] I didn't notice that she fell into that hole.
[ Almas ] There was a piece of metal here. She fell between here and the wall.
[ Almas ] I couldn't take her out myself, and there was no one to help.
[ Almas ] I jumped, fell on the ground and pulled her out by her leg.
[ Almas ] Then I lifted her upside down and pressed on her chest
and water started coming out.
[ Almas ] I'm afraid that if a kid falls, they won't
be able to get out alone, and I'll find them dead.
[ Almas ] I'm tired of always looking after them.
[ Almas ] Abu Walid and I look after the kids all the time.
[ Almas ] I've been driven to despair this past year and a half.
[ Almas ] And always ask God to stop this conflict.
[ Almas ] I wish God would hear me and help me not get pregnant any more.
[ Almas ] Do you know that I drank chlorine?
[ Almas ] It's poisonous. I'm crying.
[ Almas ] It's very hard. I don't want to have so many kids.
[ Translator ] What did you feel when you learnt you were pregnant?
[ Almas ] The ambulance brought me to the hospital.
[ Almas ] I fainted.
[ Translator ] You didn't want the child? [ Almas ] No, I didn't.
[ Almas ] But I think the Lord decided to punish me for taking 16 pills of Panadol.
[ Almas ] I took them because I wanted to interrupt my pregnancy.
[ Almas ] First I wanted them to perform an abortion, but they refused.
[ Almas ] I started running away from the factory
because my head was pounding from the machines.
[ Almas ] I was one month pregnant.
[ Almas ] I'd run away from the shop and sit in the mountains.
[ Almas ] They'd come and pick me up.
[ Almas ] The first 3 months I ate only biscuits and soda.
[ Almas ] I didn't feel the taste at all.
[ Almas ] First I'd feed my kids and then lock myself up in my room.
[ Almas ] They'd bring me tea, but I couldn't drink it.
[ Almas ] I wanted to hide from everyone. I was confused.
[ Almas ] And the father?
[ Almas ] 'You're responsible for your own affairs. You should be ashamed.'
[ Almas ] We had a fight.
[ Almas ] I still don't know where I will give birth.
[ Almas ] I'm still afraid.
It costs 1 million LBP ($660 USD) to give birth in Lebanon. It costs $27 in Syria.
[ Almas ] Abu Walid wants to call her Sham (Levant), but I don't.
[ Almas ] I keep telling him I want to call the baby Ilyaf.
[ Abu Walid ] Levant is your homeland! Levant sounds beautiful.
[ Almas ] Levant… [ Abu Walid ] Levant is Paradise on Earth.
[ Almas ] Isn't it strange to call a girl Levant?
[ Abu Walid ] Many girls are called Levant.
[ Almas ] He wants to call her Great Levant! [ Translator ] That's a pretty name!
[ Translator ] I hope she'll bring luck and wealth to your family!
[ Almas ] God willing!
Abu Walid and his oldest sons, Walid and Khaled, Work from 7am
to 7pm every day in a marble factory. They receive $300/month
For 12 people in their family.
REFUGEE CAMP
[ Children’s Rhyme ] Three doves:
one prays, the second fasts, the third, in the name of Allah and his Prophet.
Say hello to Grandma,
give regards to the government that smokes cigarettes.
I said, 'Let me try.' Instead of a cigarette, it gave me a knife.
I asked for food. It fed me squash.
I put it away.
A cockerel came and pecked at it.
I shooed him away.
He replied, 'Shoo yourself!'
I said, 'Oh God, oh God!'
He replied, 'God has blessed me!'
[ Children’s Rhyme ] Once I was sitting at home,
under a green olive tree, next to a laurel bush.
My dear Mummy was making flatbread,
and Dad was watering the citrus tree with my sister Malak.
A big man appeared at the fountain.
He called me a beauty,
the most beautiful bird!
He said, 'We live up high,
and you live in the plains.
We'll give you some of God's rights,
we'll give you water and light,
wind and shadow.
We'll never give in.'
[ Feda ] Sometimes in the evening I don't want to hear any voices,
[ Feda ] I switch off the volume, look at the picture.
[ Feda ] I turn it down to the minimum.
[ Feda ] I don't understand anything. I just watch.
[ Feda ] 'Oh, foreign land, what is happening?'
[ Feda ] A liar is he who says that
his thoughts are with the foreign land…
[ Feda ] We left and ended up in the foreign land.
[ Feda ] Oh, for whom is the Syrian land?'
[ Amira (Um Faisal), Refugee From Homs, Sy ] My name's Amira. I'm from Homs.
[ Amira ] We had everything: a house, cows.
[ Feda, 11 Years ] We would milk them and clean them.
[ Feda ] Pour water over them when it was hot.
[ Feda ] And take them out in the sun to dry.
[ Feda ] We'd lead them to the pasture to graze.
[ Translator ] How long ago did you leave for Lebanon? [ Feda ] A year and a half ago.
[ Faisal, 13 Years Old ] We were at home, doing homework,
getting ready for a test.
[ Faisal ] We were at home when the bombing started.
[ Faisal ] Two missiles exploded on our land.
[ Faisal ] Many people died.
[ Faisal ] One of the neighbours was wounded in his thigh and died.
[ Faisal ] Three cousins…
[ Faisal ] One was wounded here,
the second here,
the third here.
[ Faisal ] They all died.
[ Faisal ] We thought we would be next.
[ Faisal ] Everyone was trembling with fear.
[ Faisal ] I climbed to the roof to see where shells were exploding.
[ Faisal ] A stone hit my leg.
[ Faisal ] I still have scars.
[ Faisal ] That's one of them.
[ Faisal ] We went to a doctor, paid money.
[ Faisal ] But nothing helped. The shard was moving up my leg and ended up here.
[ Faisal ] They cured my leg, but I cried because it hurt.
[ Faisal ] We started moving from place to place and finally came to Lebanon.
[ Amira ] We arrived just in the clothes we were wearing.
[ Amira ] We left as a massacre started close to us.
[ Feda ] When we were sleeping, Dad came for us.
[ Feda ] We slept outside the city due to the shooting.
[ Feda ] Dad said that tomorrow we would go to Lebanon.
[ Feda ] He was supposed to catch up with us.
[ Feda ] We got on a shuttle.
[ Feda ] They made us get out at a what's-it-called...
at a checkpoint in Syria, and there we got on a bus.
[ Feda ] The entire road was covered in checkpoints.
[ Feda ] You go here - a checkpoint, there - a checkpoint.
[ Feda ] They would stop us all the time,
and search us to make sure we didn't carry anything with us.
[ Faisal ] I was afraid that I would get arrested,
or that someone would shoot at the bus.
[ Faisal ] We only got to Lebanon at 11pm.
[ Faisal ] Finally, we came here, to these barracks.
[ Feda ] That was the last time I saw our house.
[ Feda ] I felt we would never return.
[ Faisal ] I don't like Lebanon.
[ Faisal ] This one slanders me,
that one cuts me off, or hits me, and I can't do anything.
[ Faisal ] If someone says something bad to me in Syria, we'd beat them up right away.
[ Faisal ] Here we can't do that.
[ Faisal ] It's better there.
[ Faisal ] Here they humiliate us. That's that.
[ Feda ] Syria's our homeland and we're used to it.
[ Amira ] We had some money, which I spent on rent for the barrack.
[ Amira ] A month and a half later, we heard news:
my husband was captured en route to Lebanon.
[ Amira ] I have a little daughter, who got sick.
[ Amira ] I took her to the hospital, bought medicines.
[ Amira ] 7 months later they took her to a hospital in Tripoli,
where she spent 4 days.
[ Amira ] That cost me $400.
[ Amira ] And all to no avail!
[ Amira ] I asked to keep her in the hospital.
[ Amira ] They said she was fine, and she'd be discharged
under the doctor's responsibility.
[ Amira ] That's what my daughter was like in Syria,
and that's how she looked here.
[ Feda ] She stopped playing with us, lost weight.
[ Feda ] Her hair was falling out.
[ Feda ] We took her to the hospital here.
[ Feda ] They checked her pulse here and here.
[ Amira ] The girl dried out.
[ Amira ] I asked, "How can you discharge a dying girl?"
[ Amira ] They replied, 'She's fine,'
[ Amira ] I took my daughter and left.
[ Amira ] Within two hours we sat here.
[ Amira ] I fed her, changed her diaper.
[ Amira ] I was washing the floor when a woman came up to me
and said, 'Your daughter Rukaya isn't moving.
[ Amira ] She's cold already. She's dead.'
[ Amira ] I called her, 'Rukaya, Rukaya!' but she didn't move.
[ Amira ] Her aunt and uncle took her to the hospital.
[ Amira ] I saw her there for the last time.
[ Amira ] When they gave her back to me, she was dead.
[ Amira ] We received permission to bury her on Lebanese land.
[ Amira ] We paid money to bury her here.
[ Feda ] When she died, we were working.
[ Feda ] We were told, "Your sister has died."
[ Feda ] At first, I was painting cars.
[ Feda ] I thought they were kidding.
[ Feda ] I came home and saw her here.
[ Feda ] I kissed her and started crying.
[ Faisal ] I got very upset and angry.
[ Faisal ] How can my sister die?
[ Faisal ] I was really, really angry.
[ Faisal ] We buried her in a foreign graveyard.
[ Faisal ] We didn't bury her in Syria, where we could visit her, if we ever return.
[ Faisal ] No, we buried her here.
[ Faisal ] So we won't be able to visit her.
[ Amira ] When we got in the cab, my husband called
me and said, 'Rukaya's your responsibility now.'
[ Amira ] What am I to feel when my husband asks, 'How's Rukaya?'
[ Amira ] What will I say? That Rukaya's dead?
[ Amira ] Now I'm afraid that my child will get sick.
[ Amira ] God forbid something happens to them.
[ Amira ] I fled from war, but my daughter died here.
Come on, come in!
Quietly!
Come on, come on!
Come play with us!
[ Woman ] Everyone go home!
[ Woman ] Enough! What horrible kids! God damn you!
[ Amira ] I have two small kids: they're 12 and 13.
[ Amira ] They work. One earns $6.50, and the other $13.
[ Amira ] They don't always receive their salary though.
[ Amira ] Sometimes I have an opportunity to work too.
[ Amira ] Do you call this a life?
[ Amira ] But that's how we live, my kids and I.
[ Amira ] Life here in Lebanon's very bad.
[ Amira ] When you go to the shop, the Lebanese shout behind your back: 'Beggar!
Begging for money!'
[ Amira ] What else can I say?
[ Amira ] I had a daughter who was worth all my life.
[ Amira ] And she died here.
[ Amira ] What else can I say?
[ Amira ] More than anything, I'm afraid of cars on the road.
[ Amira ] I'm afraid some car will stop and say, 'Take 50 cents and get in!'
[ Amira ] There are a lot of reasons to worry about youir child in Lebanon.
[ Amira ] I'm worried about the drunk.
[ Amira ] When my kids started working,
they had to work for a week to earn enough
to buy bread and fill the gas cylinders.
[ Amira ] In general, they help me.
[ Amira ] I myself work for four hours a day and earn $6.60.
[ Amira ] If their father had been here,
he wouldn't have allowed them to work.
[ Amira ] He'd have sent them to study.
[ Amira ] But what can I do?
[ Amira ] They both work, and I let them do that for at least some support.
[ Mohammed, Feda’s Employer ] I had three workers.
[ Mohammed ] Two left and now I just have Feda.
[ Mohammed ] He'll never leave me.
[ Mohammed ] He's been working here for 6 months.
[ Mohammed ] Some people would come, work for a bit, a week or a month maybe,
but Feda's been with me since I opened my shop.
[ Mohammed ] I had just opened my shop when Feda's brother came to me
and said Feda was looking for a job.
[ Mohammed ] I felt he was honest,
he never lies to me.
[ Mohammed ] I mean, he was real honest.
[ Mohammed ] I trust him with the keys to the shop.
[ Mohammed ] I've tested him many times. I like him a lot.
[ Mohammed ] He's much older than his age.
[ Mohammed ] He's 11, but he's got the responsibility of a 20-year-old.
[ Feda ] We offer many services, including the cleaning and replacement of carburettors.
[ Feda ] Honestly, I give money for my family.
[ Feda ] I give it to them. And I save up too.
[ Feda ] I buy things, food, put money aside, and give it to Mum.
[ Walid, Owner Of Motorcycle Service ] Feda started working in my son's body shop.
[ Walid ] We gave him a test run.
[ Walid ] He proved to be an honest person. He wants to work.
[ Walid ] He should be in school.
[ Walid ] It's a shame but circumstances make him work.
[ Walid ] Feda works because he's a Syrian refugee.
[ Walid ] He lives in a tent in Lebanon.
[ Walid ] His father's in prison.
[ Walid ] No one helps him. And there's no one who could help.
[ Walid ] Could anything bad happen to him?
[ Walid ] You see… he needs at least some sort of upbringing and care.
[ Walid ] They need a caretaker.
[ Walid ] No one knows what will come of them.
[ Walid ] He might easily have become a beggar,
or maybe he'd even be destitute,
because you can see how eager he is to help his family.
[ Walid ] He's ready to do any job.
[ Walid ] If no one had helped him,
he might have become a thief.
[ Walid ] Without help, he'd be a thief.
[ Walid ] He benefits from working for us.
[ Walid ] And we... he helps us out.
[ Faisal ] I work at Jamid Amud's motorcycle shop.
[ Faisal ] I leave at 7am and don't get home until 5 or 6 at night.
[ Faisal ] Sunday's my day off, so I rest.
[ Faisal ] Sometimes the boss yells at me and calls me in for a half day on Sunday.
[ Faisal ] I don't like the job.
[ Faisal ] I can disassemble and clean carburettors and pistons.
[ Faisal ] I also clean up.
[ Faisal ] I'd like to study.
[ Faisal ] I dream of studying.
[ Faisal ] I wanted to be a doctor or open a cow farm.
[ Faisal ] I need to earn money, so I can eat and live.
[ Faisal ] If I didn't have to work, I wouldn't.
[ Faisal ] But I have to.
[ Faisal ] I'm scared of losing my job, because if I did,
it'd be hard to find another one.
[ Faisal ] I work all week long, from Monday to Saturday.
[ Faisal ] I work like a dog.
[ Faisal ] I sweep, disassemble, clean up.
[ Faisal ] I make $20.
[ Faisal ] I buy bread...
[ Faisal ] I pay for the rent.
[ Faisal ] Generally, I cover the cost of bread.
[ Faisal ] Yeah, I work while the other kids study and play.
[ Faisal ] I leave home at dawn and get back late,
other kids study and are happy.
[ Faisal ] There are three bosses here. Two are nice. One's mean.
[ Faisal ] The boss has deducted money from my wages several times.
[ Faisal ] It's hard to get it all.
[ Walid, Owner Of Motorcycle Service ] You told them that you're just a labourer here?
[ Walid ] Yeah?
[ Walid ] I just told them that I treat you like a son!
[ Walid ] And don't I?
[ Walid ] You're not a labourer or a slave here.
[ Walid ] Say you're studying mechanics!
[ Walid ] So what if you sweep the floor?
[ Walid ] You have to delete what you've just filmed!
Faisal makes $20/week and Feda makes $14/week.
[ Walid ] That's enough... go home, Faisal.
[ Faisal ] I want to quit this job, start my studies and go back to Syria.
[ Amira ] I want them to study and get a diploma to help them later on.
[ Amira ] Faisal wanted to study to be a veterinarian.
[ Amira ] We had cows.
[ Amira ] He'd look after them and take care of them.
[ Amira ] He'd give them water and feed them.
[ Amira ] He really took care of them.
[ Mohammed ] Feda is smart and very capable.
[ Mohammed ] But one thing distracts him from his job.
[ Mohammed ] He thinks about it more than about work.
[ Mohammed ] I don't want to know the details, maybe it's the problems in Syria.
[ Mohammed ] He comes to work, but his mind is in Syria.
[ Mohammed ] I often tell him to concentrate.
[ Walid ] We want to help and support him until he's older.
[ Walid ] God willing, he'll open his own body shop like ours, where he can work.
[ Feda ] I miss studying.
[ Feda ] Math, reading, Arabic.
[ Feda ] I liked those.
[ Feda ] But not science or English.
[ Feda ] I don't like them. I hated them.
[ Translator ] How long have you worked?
[ Feda ] For a while.
[ Translator ] Roughly?
[ Feda ] I can't count.
[ Feda ] I can't even read.
[ Feda ] I can only write my name.
[ Feda ] Fawad Fedai.
[ Mohammed ] When I was Feda's age, I went to school.
[ Mohammed ] But then I left school.
[ Mohammed ] I really liked my job.
[ Mohammed ] So I decided not to go back to school.
[ Mohammed ] But maybe Feda wants to keep studying. If so, he can't stay illiterate.
[ Mohammed ] I feel sorry for him.
[ Mohammed ] I often ask for a numbered tool, but he hasn't learned to count.
[ Mohammed ] What kind of future can he have? He learns visually.
[ Feda ] I want to go to school,
so I can learn how to read.
[ Feda ] In the future, we'll grow up to be doctors.
[ Feda ] But if you don't learn to read, no good can come of it.
[ Translator ] We asked Feda who he wants to be,
when he grows up, and he said "a doctor".
[ Translator ] Did he tell you that?
[ Mohammed ] No, he's never told me that.
[ Mohammed ] He's very quiet and shy.
[ Mohammed ] He never tells anyone what's on his mind.
[ Mohammed ] I might sense that something had happened,
but he might only tell me what it was
three months, even a year later.
[ Mohammed ] He never tells anything at once.
[ Mohammed ] He keeps everything to himself.
[ Translator ] Why haven't you told Mohammed that you want to be a doctor?
[ Translator ] You don't want to tell him stuff?
[ Feda ] Well, I just didn't . I've just come to him for work.
[ Feda ] I worry that I can't realise my dream.
[ Feda ] We don't study here, there are no schools.
[ Feda ] So I can't become a doctor.
[ Feda ] We used to go to school every day.
[ Feda ] Now, all my friends who stayed in Syria are studying. It's just me that isn't.
[ Feda ] Studying's better than working...
because people who study can read anything.
[ Feda ] When someone asks if I can read,
and there's someone nearby who can read, I feel uncomfortable.
[ Feda ] People laugh at me.
[ Feda ] People who can't read are nothing.
[ Feda ] It's no good if you pick up a phone, and can't read what's written on it.
[ Khaled, 15 Years ] I work with slabs.
[ Khaled ] Cut and process them.
[ Khaled ] I used to study, but then I left school due to the war.
[ Khaled ] I finished 7 grades.
[ Almas ] We want them to learn, to become officials,
not labourers. Their dad did manual work.
[ Almas ] You can see what he's like.
[ Almas ] Then no one can harm them when they grow up.
[ Almas ] With no study they'll hurt you all your life.
Right now, 4 out of 5 Syrian children in Lebanon are not in school.
[ Madlin, 11 Years Old ] If you wash and then go outside for half
an hour, you get covered in dust.
[ Madlin ] I can't feel anything but the noise.
[ Madlin ] Just the noise.
[ Madlin ] From the saw and the stone cutting.
[ Madlin ] From 7 am to 7 pm.
[ Madlin ] I want to study,
to meet with my friends.
[ Madlin ] I want to go to school with them.
[ Hassan, 9 Years Old ] I was in first class, tomorrow I'll go back
to Syria and be in second.
[ Hassan ] It'll be better to go from here! It's dirty!
[ Hassan ] I want to play with my friends!
[ Hassan ] I want to play with my friends, to play ball!
[ Hassan ] We would go with my family, my brother Walid and Khaled and Dad, all together.
[ Hassan ] We would leave at 5 am and arrive only in the evening.
[ Hassan ] When we get there and get off the bus, we'll go to bed right away.
[ Almas ] It turns out my kids know nothing.
[ Almas ] I want to take them to Syria, so they can study. I can't give birth here.
[ Almas ] I'll take all my kids and leave. I was crying for two days!
[ Madlin ] I pray, I say, 'God, please stay with Syria,
protect us from everything.
[ Madlin ] Let us get there safely'.
[ Madlin ] Tomorrow we'll get on the bus.
[ Madlin ] I'm afraid of the military men.
[ Madlin ] I'll hide under my seat from them.
[ Hassan ] There could be soldiers,
tanks, missiles, planes...
[ Hassan ] I'm afraid of them.
[ Translator ] Why do you want to go if you're so scared?
[ Hassan ] I want to go to school, to read and write.
[ Hassan ] It's no good if I don't study.
[ Hassan ] I want to be a school teacher.
[ Hassan ] I want to teach kids,
my friends and older people.
[ Almas ] Come to Mummy.
[ Almas ] You want to go to Syria, darling? Right?
[ Almas ] Maybe tomorrow morning…
[ Almas ] Are there people who aren't scared?
[ Almas ] If someone's going to die, they'll be scared.
[ Almas ] We can't breathe here.
[ Almas ] Power shuts off after noon.
[ Almas ] When my kids see it all, they say, 'Go, Mummy'.
[ Almas ] The pressure's killing us!
[ Almas ] We've lived like this for a year and a half. How much more should I take?
[ Almas ] I won't stand it anymore.
[ Almas ] It's better to die.
[ Almas ] Yes.
[ Almas ] Death's better.
[ Sister ] You should prepare food here and send it to Syria.
[ Abu Walid (Brother) ] We live in hungry times.
[ Almas (Um Walid) ] Everything costs money here.
[ Almas ] We pay the rent.
[ Almas ] We buy water.
[ Almas ] Soon we'll die of cold.
[ Almas ] There'll be plenty of snow in the winter!
[ Sister ] Say hello to everyone there!
[ Almas ] Of course.
[ Madlin ] I'll say hello to everyone!
[ Madlin ] From Hipam to the Riads!
[ Sister ] I gave you 300 thousand, where's that gone?
[ Abu Walid (Brother) ] I bought food!
[ Sister ] What food? [ Abu Walid (Brother) ] What do you think?
[ Sister ] How much was it? [ Abu Walid (Brother) ] 70 thousand.
[ Sister ] So where's the rest?
[ Almas ] I have it. [ Abu Walid (Brother) ] Almas has 100.
[ Sister ] And the rest? [ Abu Walid (Brother) ] Here, I have it.
[ Sister ] As soon as we get money, you spend it!
[ Sister ] I wish a missile would hit you!
[ Abu Walid (Brother) ] Translate that for them!
[ Sister ] Where would he get money? He doesn't even work!
[ Abu Walid (Brother) ] Here's 40 thousand.
[ Abu Walid (Brother) ] How much do you need?
[ Almas ] 40 thousand... 40 is enough.
[ Boy ] Look, what's that? [ Almas ] It's nothing.
[ Almas ] Most of the money goes to buy water and bread.
[ Abu Walid (Brother) ] This money's hard-earned, and it's not enought for anything.
[ Almas ] Lebanese money flies away like the wind.
[ Abu Walid (Brother) ] We get refugee vouchers and buy food with them.
[ Almas ] Why are we going back to Syria? We're unwanted here!
[ Almas ] Did you hear someone was burnt here?
[ Almas ] And after something like that, I tell him I want to leave.
[ Almas ] If it's God's will to die in Syria, then so be it.
[ Sister ] It's impossible to leave the house
there, bombs are falling all over the place.
[ Sister ] My mum has died during bombing.
[ Almas ] God willing, we'll get back to our country safely.
[ Almas ] I woke up at night,
and packed to go to Syria.
[ Almas ] But then my husband's brother called,
he said planes were everywhere.
[ Almas ] The rebels and the army have clashed.
[ Almas ] There were losses on both sides.
[ Almas ] Oh, we cried so much. We live here, but it's humiliating.
[ Almas ] I'd rather eat mud in Syria than live like this in Lebanon.
[ Mohammed ] I'm sad because I can't go to Syria. Planes, bombings.
[ Mohammed ] A man was walking along the road,
when a shell exploded.
[ Mohammed ] He was torn to pieces.
[ Mohammed ] After that we didn't go anywhere.
[ Mohammed ] The planes bomb everything from above.
[ Madlin ] We got ready, bought some things, finished everything, and now we can't go.
[ Madlin ] Because a massacre's begun.
[ Madlin ] About 20 planes flew over our village.
[ Madlin ] Shooting started.
[ Madlin ] We were too scared to go.
[ Madlin ] I just cried.
[ Madlin ] I haven't eaten yet.
[ Walid ] God willing, it'll get better, and they go back.
[ Walid ] To their homes and jobs.
[ Walid ] There they can rest, and leave us to rest.
[ Feda ] Bring the cards, we'll play. Bring the ball too.
[ Feda ] And a plane, so we can fly to Syria.
[ Feda ] We'll rise up high, so everyone can see us.
[ Feda ] We'll fly there and they won't shoot at us.
[ Child ] They'll hit you right away.
[ Feda ] And you'll keep rising up all you want.
A few weeks later, Um Walid, Abu Walid and 6 of the kids left
for Syria. Their baby girl, Sham (Levant), was born there.
Khaled and Walid stayed in the factory.
[ Khaled, 15 Years Old ] It's hard here without my parents. Very hard.
[ Khaled ] When I lived with my parents, it was great.
[ Khaled ] I was happy and content. I'd eat and drink with them.
[ Khaled ] Spent evenings with them.
[ Khaled ] Now I go to bed at 8, and by 8.30 I'm already asleep.
[ Khaled ] There's no one to be with.
[ Khaled ] With my parents, we never slept before 11.
[ Khaled ] My mother would cook for us after work.
[ Khaled ] It's hard without her. I miss my family a lot.
[ Walid ] Life without your parents is worthless.
[ Walid ] I have to do everything myself: cook, clean, wash.
[ Khaled ] My mother, father, brothers and sisters:
[ Khaled ] Hassan, Mohammed, Fares, Jahid, Madlin and Rosa went to Syria.
[ Khaled ] Maybe they'll come back in 5 months, maybe they won't come back at all.
[ Walid ] I hope my family won't return. I want to spend my life in Syria and
never hear the word 'Lebanon' again.
[ Walid ] Lebanon totally destroyed us.
[ Khaled ] The road's very dangerous.
[ Khaled ] They spent a lot of money on the car.
[ Khaled ] A car to Syria cost $500.
[ Walid ] The bus owner took money to pay at every checkpoint.
[ Walid ] If you don't pay, you can't go on.
[ Walid ] If you don't pay at the checkpoint, they can kill you on the spot.
[ Walid ] I miss everyone. Everyone.
[ Walid ] I started dreaming about them,
of my sisters and younger brothers.
[ Walid ] Once I spoke to Mum, she started crying.
[ Walid ] She wanted to come back, but I said I'd go myself.
[ Walid ] If I went back, we couldn't live. What would we eat? Dirt?
[ Khaled ] Each month I send $200 to my parents in Syria.
[ Khaled ] There's no money there, nothing.
[ Khaled ] I work from 7 to 7 and make $60 a week.
[ Khaled ] Did you go to Abed?
[ Walid ] We had a fight. [ Khaled ] With Abed? Why?
[ Walid ] There's no work.
[ Khaled ] He didn't give you work? [ Walid ] No.
[ Walid ] I'm thinking about quitting.
[ Walid ] The factory owner said a lot of nasty things when we argued.
[ Walid ] He humiliated my father and my mother.
[ Walid ] I stayed against my will.
[ Walid ] If I'd gone with my parents, they'd have starved.
[ Walid ] I stayed to work, to save money, and send it to them.
[ Walid ] I live here and thank God.
[ Walid ] I live on and don't know when they'll fire me.
[ Walid ] I do my job. It's a hard job.
[ Walid ] I work 12 hours, even when I can't anymore.
[ Walid ] My boss doesn't like anything I do.
[ Walid ] He wants me to work more. To kill myself at work.
Soon after the family left for Syria, Lebanon closed its borders to Syrian refugees.
To this day, the family is split between the two countries.
[ Feda ] Oh he who forgives and he, who leaves!
Sometimes we fight, sometimes we forgive.
One descends, the other ascends.
So it happens.
The oppressed.
That's the life of the oppressed.
We suffer in this life.
Oh, father, come back...
Life, life, oh, life...