Peace by Chocolate: A tasty confection

Peace by Chocolate (2021) • View trailer

Four stars (out of five). Not rated, and suitable for all ages

Available via: Amazon Prime and other streaming services

By Derrick Bang • Published in The Davis Enterprise, 6.10.22

Everybody in our bunkered, “fear the other” country should be forced to sit down and watch this Canadian charmer: as uplifting and (ahem) sweet a story — based on actual events — as I’ve seen in quite awhile.

 

Tareq (Ayham Abou Ammar, left) listens politely, but with mounting dread, as his father
Issam (Hatem Ali) explains how they can work together to rebuild the family's
chocolate empire.

In the real world, Issam Hadhad began his chocolate-making business in 1986, initially working from his grandmother’s kitchen in Damascus. He soon expanded into two shops, and within a quarter-century the business had grown to 30 employees, who helped distribute Issam’s chocolates throughout the Middle East and much of Europe.

In 2012, everything was destroyed by bombs dropped during the Syrian civil war, which had begun the previous year. The war forced the entire Hadhad family to leave Syria for Lebanon, where they pondered what to do next.

 

This is where director Jonathan Keijser’s quirky little film begins. He and co-scripter Abdul Malik depict this family’s subsequent saga with warmth, respect, a whimsical tone, and (more or less) fidelity to what actually happened.

 

Their narrative focuses on Issam’s son Tareq (a delightfully nuanced performance by Ayham Abou Ammar), the first family member to be accepted as a refugee sponsored by citizens of the tiny town of Antigonish, Nova Scotia. He arrives in the middle of a punishing winter; the shocked, wide-eyed expression on Ammar’s face — as he surveys the snowbound surroundings — speaks volumes.

 

(“In the Middle East,” the actual Tareq recalled, during a 2021 interview with The National News, “Canada [is regarded as] the coldest country that escaped from the Ice Age.”)

 

When greeted at the airport by sponsors Frank (Mark Camacho), his wife Heather (Cary Lawrence) and their friend Zariah (Kathryn Kirkpatrick), they gift him with a woolen cap emblazoned with the word “Canada.” This random act of kindness, along with cheery greetings from everybody Tareq meets, results in a severe case of culture shock (which Ammar plays with hilarious bewilderment).