Film project helping them shape own stories about life in the camps

BEIRUT — “Three, two, one, action!” shouts Syrian refugee Mostafa Abdallah, 11, energetically directing his fellow child actors in a musical being filmed in a camp in the Lebanese capital.

Members of the cast spring into action, belting out a chaotic but charming rendition of a traditional Arabic folk song about love and loss, accompanied by tambourines.

The musical is part of the Refugee Film Project, an initiative by international organization SB OverSeas that is helping Syrian refugee children in Lebanon write, direct and act in their own short movies.

Since Syria’s conflict erupted in 2011, its children have often been center stage in heartbreaking images capturing the brutality of the war or the tragedy of the ensuing refugee crisis.

But the Refugee Film Project aims to turn the camera around, giving young refugees the chance to shape their own stories — including from behind the camera.

Every day for six weeks, around 30 child actors gathered in front of the Bokra Ahla (A Better Tomorrow) NGO, which provides education services in Shatila, a Palestinian camp in Beirut.

Mostafa turns away from the digital camera just long enough to say: “In the past, I used to film from my cellphone. But here, we learned how to film on camera — we learn a ton and have so much fun.”

Ayear and a half ago, he and his family fled the northern Syrian town ofManbij, held at the time by the Islamic State group, and eventually made their way across the border into Lebanon.

More than one million Syrians — including over 500,000 children — are registered in Lebanon as refugees.

Many live in informal camps on agricultural land, but others settled in urbanPalestinian camps like Shatila, whose original population of 10,000 people has swelled with the arrivals of Syrians fleeing the conflict.

The project has already produced several films, including a horror story about three witches and Betrayal in Beirut, a six-minute tale of love, kidnapping, and greed.

It is the brainchild of British teacher Aphra Evans, 24, and filmmaker Shyam Jones, 25, who work with the children to come up with storyboards and scripts.

At the age of 101 years and 38 days, Bryson William Verdun Hayes became the world’s oldest skydiver on Sunday. The veteran of the D-Day landings during World War II completed his tandem jump above the English county of Devon from a height of 4,572 meters. The former lance corporal in the Royal Signals, who was awarded France’s Legion of Honor for his heroism during the war, took up skydiving last year at the age of 100.

JOSEPH EID / AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE Tahani al-Shaalan, a 9-year-old Syrian refugee, films her friends as they perform in Shatila as part of a program called the Refugee Film Project, an initiative that teaches children how to write, direct and act in their own movies.