The documentary follows an elderly musician in his fight to save his seven grandchildren before it’s too late.
Syrian documentary Children of the Enemy, which captures the journey of a Swedish-Chilean man to a Syrian prison camp to rescue his grandchildren, had its world premiere at the Copenhagen documentary film festival CPH:DOX this week.
Director Gorki Glaser-Müller’s documentary focuses on Chilean-Swede musician Patricio Galvez who attempts to bring his orphaned grandchildren home after their parents – members of Daesh – are killed.
The film depicts how Galvez’s daughter Amanda and her husband, a Swedish Muslim convert, travelled to Syria with their children in 2014 to fight for Daesh. Both parents were killed in 2019 and their seven children were transferred to an overcrowded refugee camp in North-East Syria.
Galvez – shattered by grief – refused to accept the grim fate of his grandchildren, and decided to travel to Erbil, the capital city of Iraqi Kurdistan, from where he hoped to enter Syria, and save the children. He invited Glaser-Müller to accompany him on this perilous mission.
