EXCLUSIVE: The Sundance award-winning One in a Million, a longitudinal film about a Syrian girl caught between life as a refugee in Germany and memories of her homeland, has just made its European premiere at the Thessaloniki International Documentary Festival in Greece. The Newcomers Competition entry also screens today at the Pavlos Zannas venue.
On Saturday (March 14), the documentary directed by Itab Azzam and Jack MacInnes plays at CPH:DOX in Copenhagen, with additional screenings set there for March 16, 17, and 18.
Azzam and MacInnes won the directing award for World Cinema Documentary at Sundance for their story that follows a young woman named Israa “from childhood to adulthood on an extraordinary journey from Syria to Germany.” The film was shot over a 10-year period beginning when Israa was 11, “as she and her family are preparing to cross the Aegean Sea, risking everything in search of safety and a better life in Europe. What unfolds is a deeply personal chronicle of war, exile and heartbreak, as Israa grows up navigating adolescence, identity and belonging far from the home she was forced to leave. As Israa settles into life in Germany, new freedoms collide with the stabilizing pull of Syrian traditions, testing bonds and reshaping her sense of self.”
Watch an exclusive clip from the film below.
The title refers to the million Syrian refugees that were admitted into Germany during the brutal civil war that culminated with Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad fleeing to Moscow in November 2024. (During the war, the U.S. admitted a miniscule number of Syrians – about 25,000. Currently, the Trump administration bans Syrians from entering the U.S.).
At Sundance, One in a Million also won the Audience Award for World Cinema Documentary.
“The film bears witness to the remarkable trust between filmmakers and family, following Israa and her loved ones across borders, cultures and shifting circumstances,” states press materials for the documentary. “An intimate and nuanced coming-of-age story, One in a Million illuminates the complexities of the refugee experience while asking a universal question: what does it truly mean to call a place home?”
Co-director Itab Azzam is Syrian born herself. She and MacInness, her filmmaking and life partner, were living in Damascus in 2011 when the civil war broke out.
“We left for London in August of that year planning to return a few months later, but that day never came,” they write in a directors’ statement. “Four years later in 2015, we met Israa selling cigarettes on a street corner in Turkey, as she and her family had just arrived from the devastation of Aleppo. Defiant and brimming with joy, despite the horror around her, we instantly fell in love with her – and felt that her story demanded telling.
“We documented her harrowing journey across eight countries to safety in Germany. Israa was one of a million refugees to enter Germany that year.”
The directors continue, “The journey has been joyous and illuminating, but often emotionally close to the bone. In our own way, we too have been going through the pain of exile from Syria over the past decade, and events in Syria continue to devastate our family. This film has become our statement to the world about the pain, the confusion, and the dislocation of that experience – and the need for unflinching honesty and empathy in the face of the divisions that scar our world.”
One in a Million is a Frontline Features and BBC Storyville Production, presented by PBS Distribution. The feature is produced, filmed, and directed by Itab Azzam and Jack MacInnes and produced by Will Anderson, James Bluemel, Andrew Palmer, and Oscar winner Raney Aronson-Rath (20 Days in Mariupol). Iain Pettifer-Moth and Alec Rossiter edited the film. The score is composed by Simon Russell.
Executive producers include Lucie Kon for BBC, Jutta Krug for WDR, Joseph Schull, Harriet Gugenheim, David Fialkow, Nina Fialkow, Adam & Melony Lewis, Patty Quillin, and Jenny Raskin.
Distribution in the U.S. and Canada is through PBS Distribution. Autlook is handling international sales.
In the clip below, Israa returns to Syria, searching for familiar places from her childhood amid the ruins of war.
English (US) ·