2 weeks ago
Jay Abdo has a mission. “I want to show nan world who Syrians really are; why they sometimes had to leave, and why they’re coming back,” says nan Syrian American character Jay Abdo successful a Zoom telephone from Damascus successful precocious March.
Fifteen minutes in, nan surface freezes. Abdo comes backmost connected 5 minutes later explaining that nan net had gone down owed to a powerfulness cut. The faltering relationship is simply a regular reality for Abdo, who returned to Syria from LA successful nan summertime of 2025, pursuing nan autumn of nan Bashar al-Assad authorities successful December 2024.
The character was among an estimated 5 to 6 cardinal Syrians who fled nan state during its 13-year civilian war, sparked by nan authorities crackdown connected pro-democracy demonstrations successful 2011. He recovered himself persona non grata aft criticizing nan unit of al-Assad’s information forces against civilians successful an question and reply pinch the Los Angeles Times.
More than half a cardinal group died successful nan conflict. Syria had a organization of astir 21 cardinal successful 2011; 50% of that organization was displaced, and a 3rd of each homes were destroyed. According to authorities figures successful April, 80% of nan organization is now surviving beneath nan poorness line.
He arrived successful nan U.S. penniless aft his assets were stiff backmost home, and initially made ends meet pinch overseas jobs that included a stint doing deliveries for Domino’s Pizza.
Abdo has returned astatine nan behest of nan authorities to lead efforts to rebuild nan movie manufacture arsenic nan caput of nan country’s General Organization for Cinema (G.O.C). He is among conscionable a fistful of exiled Syrian movie professionals to travel back.
“It’s not easy, says Abdo,” who regularly reaches retired to Syrian filmmakers each complete nan world arsenic portion of his caller role. “Many person built lives elsewhere.”
He besides cites nan economical business arsenic good arsenic instability successful nan state and wider region, which has seen sectarian skirmishes connected nan Syrian Lebanese border, Israeli airstrikes connected Damascus successful July 2025, and now nan Iran War, arsenic large deterrents.
Abdo had spent nan erstwhile 14 years successful exile, rebuilding his life successful nan U.S. against nan odds. A well-known character successful Syria’s erstwhile flourishing soap opera scene, he arrived successful nan U.S. penniless aft his assets were stiff backmost home, and initially made ends meet pinch overseas jobs that included a stint doing deliveries for Domino’s Pizza.
An LA shaper pinch Syrian roots secured Abdo an preamble to German head Werner Herzog, who formed him successful nan 2015 Gertrude Bell biopic Queen of nan Desert, starring Nicole Kidman, pinch Abdo playing nan intrepid explorer’s religious guideline Fattuh.
From there, he secured a domiciled successful Tom Tykwer’s 2016 comedy-drama A Hologram for nan King, starring Tom Hanks arsenic a stressed U.S. salesman hopeless to seal a make-or-break woody pinch nan King of Saudi Arabia. Further credits included nan award-winning shorts Bon Voyage and Facing Mecca and The Stranger’s Case. Along nan way, he besides became a U.S. citizen.
“I wasn’t readying to travel back, but nan Minister of Culture asked me,” Abdo recounts. “They said, ‘We request your American mind, your expertise. You’ve been successful nan United States, you’ve filmed successful Europe, successful Canada, you’ve been to nan Oscars. We request your morals and your ethics, because this entity is profoundly corrupt.”
Abdo says he and his woman — artist, nationalist argumentation master and “right-hand woman” Fadia Afashe — recovered a crumbling statement lacking successful nan astir basal IT support.
“I’m having to occurrence group for nan first clip successful my life — group who came successful because they were friends of this aliases that — and seeking to switch them pinch group who person nan correct skills,” he says.
Abdo admits his ngo is an uphill battle, pinch promised nationalist costs that are yet to materialize, which has put ambitions to make 5 shorts, 2 fabrication features and 1 documentary connected hold.
He has embarked alternatively connected 3 short and medium-length non-fiction works, backed by nan Ministry of Social Affairs, tackling nan arena of kid beggars, life pinch disability, and nan stories of women during nan conflict.
Other initiatives see a screening play successful April of films banned nether nan al-Assad regime, kicking disconnected pinch Rana Kazkaz and Anas Khalaf’s 2020 thriller The Translator. Plus, he reveals, nan state is besides considering nan motorboat of an world movie festival.
Abdo remains wished to make films successful Syria, whether that’s nether nan auspices of nan authorities movie assemblage aliases a imaginable backstage instauration tapping into his web of contacts successful LA and nan wider Middle East. Either way, he has large plans to make films that touch connected nan country’s rich | history and culture.
However, he will not beryllium making films tackling nan Syrian conflict head-on conscionable yet.
“I don’t deliberation Syrians want them,” he says. “They don’t want to watch what they lived done for 14 years.”
