IN 2017, AFTER OFFICIALS AT THE AZRAQ REFUGEE CAMP in Jordan observed Syrian teenagers staging and shooting their own movies on cell phones, it was proposed that more formal filmmaking instruction might enable them to better express their stories — possibly reaching a global audience. When the idea resurfaced in conversations between the United Nations High Commission on Refugees (UNHCR) and producer and philanthropist Brandt Andersen (Lone Survivor, Everest), the first-ever Azraq Film School was born.

Several months later, in July, 2017, Andersen and his team — including actress Shay Mitchell (Pretty Little Liars), actor Jason Beghe (Chicago P.D.) and cinematographer Tobias Schliessler (Lone Survivor, Beauty and the Beast) — led a select group of Syrian teenagers through a crash course in filmic storytelling, mentoring them in the creation of four short films over the course of just a few days.

The idea of writing and directing a film about Syrian refugees had been on Andersen’s mind already for some time since spending time in Turkey and Greece with refugees who had either crossed the Aegean or were planning to cross. The Azraq experience, and the stories he heard and saw there, only cemented his determination to share the human side of the crisis with the outside world.

ANDERSEN’S SCRIPT FOR REFUGEE began production in June of 2019 courtesy of Radiant Studios. Several members of the original Azraq Film School — including Beghe and cinematographer Schliessler — returned to help make the film a reality. Also joining the cast was Yasmine Al Massri of television’s Quantico, French star Omar Sy of The Intouchables fame, and young newcomer Massa Daoud, who arrived in the United States in 2012 as a Syrian refugee herself.