Hüseyin, a yogurt vendor living in a Syrian village, takes his daughter Zelal on his motorbike to deliver yogurt to his uncle. They meet a lost boy, Hemudê, in the town of Kobanê, and together with him, they try to sell the yogurt before it goes bad.

Director: Rêger AZAD KAYA
Cast: Siba MIHEMED ELİ, Mıstefa MIHEMED ELİ, Ahmed Arif HECANO

2022 / Syria / 83min.

 

When the Seedlings Grow carefully tells the story of an ordinary day of ordinary people, when a father and daughter go to town on a motorbike to sell yogurt and come back to their village home, in a manner reminiscent of Iranian master Abbas Kiarostami’s early works. As shown by the symbolic seedlings, which appear in the film and in the title, the entire movie embraces the hope for a peaceful future. Director Rêger Azad Kaya from Turkey moved to Syria to be involved in filmmaking as a cinematographer, editor and actor. He said that he was able to complete the film under strict budgetary restrictions, as a collaboration with filmmakers in Rojava in northern Syria. The film’s highlights are the natural acting of the cast members, all with no previous acting experience, and the director’s solid skill in bringing out the best in them. The two children playing Zelal and Hemudê are real-life siblings, who lost their father in the Battle of Aleppo in 2016.