IT
| Section | |
|---|---|
| Original Title | ONE IN A MILLION |
| English Title | ONE IN A MILLION |
| Movie Type | |
| Genre | |
| Production Year | 2026 |
| Director | |
| Cast | |
| Country | Germany, UK, USA |
| Movie Length | 102' |
| Screenplay | |
| Director of Photography | |
| Editor | |
| Music | Simon Russell |
| Produced by | Andrew Palmer, James Bluemel, Raney Aronson-Rath, Will Anderson |
| Production | |
| Festival Contact | |
| International Distribution |
ONE IN A MILLION
Filmed over ten years, ONE IN A MILLION follows Israa from childhood to adulthood on an extraordinary journey from Syria to Germany — and back again. We first meet her at age 11 as she and her family are preparing to cross the Aegean Sea, risking everything in search of safety and a better life in Europe. What unfolds is a deeply personal chronicle of war, exile and heartbreak, as Israa grows up navigating adolescence, identity and belonging far from the home she was forced to leave. As Israa settles into life in Germany, new freedoms collide with the stabilizing pull of Syrian traditions, testing bonds and reshaping her sense of self.
Itab Azzam
Itab Azzam is an award-winning filmmaker, producer, and humanitarian. She works with Syrian refugee women in Lebanon and London on empowerment, education, and through
therapeutic arts projects, including Film for Freedom, an initiative that trains refugee women in filmmaking. Born in Syria, she currently resides in London.
Jack MacInness
Born and raised in London, filmmaker Jack MacInness moved to Damascus, where he met and ultimately married co-director Itab.
His work has appeared on Netflix, BBC and PBS and received the Emmy, BAFTA, Peabody, Grierson, and Prix Italia Awards.
Directors’ Note
ONE IN A MILLION has been a deeply personal film for us to make. It’s a film about growing up and a film about belonging. It is a film by a family about a family. When the war started in Syria in 2011, we were a new couple living in Damascus, Syria, the country of Itab’s birth. We left for London in August of that year, planning to return a few months later, but that day never came. Four years later, in 2015, we met Israa selling cigarettes on a street corner in Turkey, as she and her family had just arrived from the devastation of Aleppo. Defiant and brimming with joy, despite the horror around her, we instantly fell in love with her – and felt that her story demanded telling. We documented her harrowing journey across eight countries to safety in Germany. Israa was one of a million refugees to enter Germany that year. And as we stood on the train platform witnessing thousands of exhausted and bewildered refugees arrive in this strange country, we were overcome with the feeling that what we were witnessing was a moment of historic importance, not on a political level but on the intimate level of countless human lives.
