Peace by Chocolate is a feel good film based from a very feel good story. Tareq (Ayham Abou Ammar), a Syrian man arrives in Antigonish, Nova Scotia straight from a refugee camp in Lebanon. "Where's the town?" "This is the town."
The family knows people in Toronto but Tareq ends up a long way from there. His father and mother soon arrive. The father Issam (Hatem Ali) was a chocolatier before his plant was blown up in the civil war in Syria.
Tareq wants to be a doctor; his father wants to be useful.
The town has a chocolate place run by Kelly (Alika Autran). Issam thinks he can do better. With relatively primitive equipment, Issam produces amazing chocolates that their Canadian immigration sponsor Frank Gallant (Mark Camacho) helps sell at the local church.
There are tensions at various points. A lot of the film is centered on Tareq, who is the only one who can speak English in the family, applying to medical schools despite his family's needs to have him around.
Jonathan Keijser (director, co-writer with Abdul Malik) gives the audience a no nonsense presentation of the story. Small tidbits such as throwing snowballs at a target and Tareq refusing to eat the chocolate until he does help enrich the story. A seemingly throwaway line when Frank teaches Issam to shovel snow — "Esposito to Henderson" — is one Canadians of a certain era (Summit Series 1972) will appreciate. Turns out Frank and Issam were both born in 1953.
Liam (Laurent Pitre) is the first employee of the chocolate factory in Nova Scotia.
The story seems male-dominated. Tareq asks his sister Alaa (Najlaa Al Khamri) to help with the family business. She says no because she has to care for her daughter (her husband was killed in the civil war).
CanadianCrossing.com film reviews
CanadianCrossing.com film coverage
The idea of refugees coming to a new place and creating jobs is an important message. The story doesn't start that way with the grim reality that refugees got help for the first year and then were pretty much on their own. Issam and his family get a lot of help from the community but his chocolatier skill is what pushes everything forward.
The film makes good work of actual Justin Trudeau footage as well as CBC News coverage of the refugee camps and other related events.
Peace by Chocolate feels like a reenactment of the basic story telling with dramatic interpretations. The story is important in a film where the whole family can watch.
Peace by Chocolate is available on demand.
video credit: YouTube/Level 33 Entertainment
photo credit: Peace by Chocolate; me
Comments