Filmed over an eight-year period, ‘Batata’ documents the life of a charismatic Syrian migrant worker Maria. An intimate story of love, friendship and perseverance set to the back-drop of an age-old conflict between Syria and Lebanon.
Shot over an unparalleled ten years, the latest film by Lebanese-Syrian director Noura Kevorkian (’23 Kilometres’, 2015) follows the plight of Maria and her family of Syrian migrant workers who, after toiling for decades in Lebanon’s fertile Bekaa valley, find themselves unable to return to their hometown of Raqqa Syria. Unique among other refugee stories to date, Kevorkian’s intimate camera captures an entire decade of marriages, births, and deaths. All the while documenting not just the age-old conflict between Syria and Lebanon—but more importantly, the unbending spirit of a woman who puts family ahead of all else.