(IMAGE: Magnetic North Pictures)
Level 33 Entertainment, 2021. Drama. 97 minutes.
RATING: 3 out of 4
Peace by Chocolate feels like a serious move to position Canada as the real land of opportunity, versus its more aggressive southern neighbor. While the United States divides along lines that significantly focus on the degree to which we welcome refugees and immigrants, this movie offers the true story of Syrian refugees who are immediately embraced and promptly thrive. No doubt it’s glossing things over a bit for the sake of a good story, but there’s definitely a sense of national pride and not-undeserved one-upmanship at play here.
When Tareq (Ayham Abou Amma) and his parents come to the small Nova Scotia town of Antigonish, to live with local sponsors, there’s no racism or obnoxious, Islamophobic evangelizing. They’re just greeted with wacky, goofball Canadian greetings, lots of snow, and people who say “Eh” all the time. Obstacles are more of the everyday kind – Tareq’s parents don’t know English, his piecemeal education in a war zone doesn’t make for an acceptable academic transcript, and his sister’s visa has been delayed. And father Issam (the late Hatem Ali) is one of those stereotypical proud dads who won’t accept charity – or dissenting opinions – even when he needs to. Bonus problem! Under Islam, he also can’t take a loan with interest, limiting his career options to virtually nothing.
But it turns out that before emigrating, he was one of Syria’s premiere chocolatiers, until his factory got bombed. And after tasting the local candy wares, which he finds decidedly inferior, he goes to work in the kitchen. Meanwhile, Tareq wants nothing more than to get into medical school, so he tries to befriend the local surgeon and awkwardly learn how to network.
Proving that the more specific a character is, the more universal their story can become, this tale of a fish-out-of-water would-be Willy Wonka proves relatable not because we are all Syrian chocoholics, but because the only real antagonist here is day-to-day frustrations, of bureaucracy and of conflicting familial aspirations. An American take on this would undoubtedly make hay of the scene in which this Muslim family attends the local Christian church to sell their wares, but here, everyone’s cool with it, save a rival chocolatier who…gets a bit snippy. And nothing worse than that.
Which isn’t to imply there’s no drama in the film. It’s just (mostly) not the contrived, life or death kind. The fact that Peace by Chocolate is an actual business and the real family are still alive might have forced filmmaker Jonathan Keijser’s hand a bit, holding any impulse toward dramatic exaggeration in check. There is a climax in which key events happen all at once in a manner that feels specifically cinematic, but it’s a fair cheat, if indeed it is conflating timelines.
And while Hatem Ali is the scene-stealer in the “stern foreign papa with a secret heart of gold” role that inevitably draws all the attention, Amma is a secret weapon, with a wide-eyed stare that can adapt to convey shock, awe, PTSD, and delight with minor adjustments. More importantly, he manages to make some objectively selfish choices by the character more sympathetic than they might have seemed in reality. Antigonish itself is also insanely cinematic, especially at night when the heavy snow contrasts with the pitch-black sky for a hauntingly cozy sense of place.
It’s what we used to call the American dream – immigrants coming to the country with nothing and making successes of themselves, creating businesses that help everyone. Nowadays, unfortunately, some of the people who claim to believe in that idea the most put a big mental asterisk next to it if it involves brown-skinned, non Judeo-Christian types. Keijser’s happy to stake Canada’s claim on the concept from here on out, even recruiting Justin Trudeau to cameo. (It’s no great shock that when an American character finally shows up, he’s awful – and the only such individual in the film.) Ironically, this is the sort of movie “faith-based” success story audiences often say they want, when it’s strictly about people from their own personal faith.
Sure, it’s all a bit formulaic, especially if you know going in that this company really exists and has obviously not gone under. But I won’t lie – there was a moment of bonding towards the end that genuinely made me emotional in a way that I did not expect, but Keijser clearly intended.
Now, my fellow Americans, since Canada’s reminded us how this is done, let’s take up the challenge. Be the wacky neighbor rather than the scary other. There might be a sweet reward in it.
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