DOXA 2017 review: Miss Kiet’s Children

Netherlands

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      A fly-on-the-wall look at the daily activities of a Dutch classroom—where most of the students are Syrian refugees—this charming doc gives a much-needed face to a population that has been splashed across newspaper pages and gruesome television reports in recent years.

      The kids are at once brave, timid, and adorable as they navigate their new surroundings, occasionally speaking to one another in their native Arabic and snapping back to broken strings of Dutch once confronted by their kind teacher. Amazingly, they seem completely unaware of the camera’s presence.

      At almost two hours, the film stretches a little long, but there’s a conversation at the 90-minute mark—about the ongoing “bang, bang” in Syria that restricted the sleep-deprived Jorj and his brother to indoor play dates—that really drives the subjects’ lived realities home. 

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