How Save The Children's film found true heroes of war

Can you tell us about the concept behind the film?

We live in turbulent times, and the ones who are paying the price are too often the ones who have no responsibility for it; or control over their circumstances – children. 

They are left to find a way through a kind of living hell, in which the only impulse can be to survive - to make it through one nightmare and wait for the next to begin. 

These are not poor faceless refugees. They are heroes who have come through more, and accomplished more in their short lives than most of us who live in comfort and security will ever do.

We thought it was essential to portray the children as strong, no matter the situation. Because they are. We also decided from early on that we are not able to imagine the stories of children in crises, we needed to hear real stories and then build the script based on that.

By empowering children – showing how resourceful, ingenious and courageous they are in the most appalling circumstances – we will give them back their agency.

These are not poor faceless refugees. They are heroes who have come through more, and accomplished more in their short lives than most of us who live in comfort and security will ever do. 

To me, the tragic ending is a call to action. We get to decide what happens next. These children have come all this way, through all this – now it's our turn.

All we have to do is hold out a hand to them when they most need it. 

So, I see the film as a story of resilience and courage. At every turn, our characters face new and greater threats. No sooner have they escaped one trap or disaster than the next one appears, and they face them all down. Until the last one.

To me, the tragic ending is a call to action. We get to decide what happens next. These children have come all this way, through all this – now it's our turn.

Director Tomas Jonsgården (right) with producer Magnus Åkerstedt.

It is based on true stories, can you expand on some of the situations behind it?

The most important thing about this film was to be authentic. So, to get a better understanding of what life in conflict zones is like, I spoke to an experienced fieldworker at Save the Children, Cat Carter, who has met with thousands of refugees arriving at camps and interviewed them. 

One of the most powerful stories we heard, was actually about the older women you see in the film. In real life she was a grandma who fled from Syria with her grandchildren.

She told me stories about children being exposed to terrifying events and how they reacted and behaved.

Many of the Lebanese cast and crew had experience of conflict and war. 

One thing that struck me is how resilient and strong children are. How they continue with their lives despite bombs falling and people being killed around them. 

The children just want everything to be as normal and ordinary as it can be. They just want to live the life a child should live.

A sad fact I learned is that sometimes older siblings shield their younger siblings when guns are firing around them. Partly because they want to protect them, but also because many of these children actually believe that the gun shots won’t hurt them, because they have seen Hollywood movies where heroes are protecting innocent people and they always survive.

The film was shot in Beirut, which suffered bombardment during the Lebanese Civil War that raged between 1975 to 1990, causing an estimated 120,000 fatalities and an exodus of almost one million people.

One of the most powerful stories we heard, was actually about the older women you see in the film. In real life she was a grandma who fled from Syria with her grandchildren, because the journey would have been too dangerous for the children if they went with their parents. 

The woman portrayed in the film is a real-life hero! 

Along the way they were stopped at border checkpoints and were threatened, but she demanded to be treated with respect because of her age and made the soldiers feel ashamed for how they treated an old lady and children. And so, she made it to the border. 

But the story doesn’t end there. When she first was on the other side, she thought, “that wasn’t so hard”, and decided to go back several times and rescue even more children, using respect for an old lady as her weapon.

The woman portrayed in the film is a real-life hero! 

What is the city the film opens on? Can you tell us more about the locations and the language spoken in the film?

It is Beirut. We shot the film in Lebanon with all local cast and crew. This is probably the film I’ve worked on that has affected me the most, both professionally and emotionally. 

Everyone put all their love into the film. It was a truly great experience. And since many of the cast and crew has experienced conflicts and war before, they could add authenticity.

The director, Tomas Jonsgården, with the child actors. The 11-year-old girl (whose name cannot be mentioned) was found by the crew living in a Beirut slum. She is a Syrian refugee who had never acted before.

How did you go about casting the remarkable child actors?

Casting was the key to the success of this film. I knew we had to find a truly remarkable couple of kids to lead the viewer through this terrifying journey. So we found hundreds of children by proper street casting. 

It was both amazing and terrifying to watch [the girl actor] perform. She made me cry. I don't think there was a single dry eye among the crew.

And there was one girl who really stood out. She was a find. Pure and natural. Everything she expressed came from within.

It was both amazing and terrifying to watch her perform. She made me cry. I don’t think there was a single dry eye among the crew.

We found her living in the slums of Beirut. A refugee from Syria. She had never done any acting before, or gone to school for that matter, but to her it all came naturally. She just knew how to perform and how to act naturally in every scenario. 

She’s definitely the biggest talent in this whole production.