Refuge Sea

Mahdi and Fatima Assali own a quiet shop in the city of Homsalda, selling general goods to residents who work in a local oil refinery. But protests against the autocratic government erupts into civil war, and a siege results in the firebombing of the store and Mahdi's death. All alone and without a means to support her family, Fatima gathers her children, Tariq and Iman, and flees for the coast.

Upon arriving, the relative safety of the beach town is overwhelmed by refugee camps well over capacity, and the violence of the civil war quickly encroaching. With no time to wait for the years-long refugee process in countries that are turning a blind eye to her people, Fatima seeks to hire a suspect pair of fishermen and their patchwork wooden boat, hoping to set sail west.

With little choice, the Assalis head out, risking life and limb to reach a land that may not want them, but offers a more peaceful existent than the pockmarked home they leave behind.