Sean McAllister, the director of A Syrian Love Story who won the international fame with the film The Liberace of Baghdad awarded at Sundance is familiar with Korean audience. In 2009, his film Japan: A Story Of Love And Hate which captures the declines of Japanese economy through a life of a formal business man who cannot afford Viagra was screened at Seoul Independent Documentary Film & Video Festival, and in 2012, his another documentary film The Reluctant Revolutionary filmed Yemen after the revolution was screened at EBS International Documentary Festival. The film A Syrian Love Story introduced at DMZ DOCs this year shows the changing world which the revolution, the war and destruction has brought and people’s life left behind without any care and help. The life of Amer and Raghda who devoted their life for the revolution is a series of imprisonment and exile and the family they made with 4 boys is falling apart with Syria’s tragic and tough history. Filming for 5 years made the director of a part of the family. The family members are familiar with talking in front of the camera while telling troubles and concerns they have, and even secrets never exposed to anyone. Through a bit rough, but truly intimate approach to the family, this documentary shows how the value of ‘love’ works , fails and changes in the relation between the personal family life and the national history. [Wook Steven Heo]