EXCLUSIVE: The sparkling personality of Israa lights up One in a Million, the Oscar-contending documentary that won two awards at Sundance, including the directing award for Itab Azzam and Jack Macinnes.
The film from Frontline Features, PBS Distribution, and BBC Storyville follows Israa from the age of 11 until 21, a decade in which she fled the decimated Aleppo, Syria of her birth, arrived with her family in Turkey, then eventually made it to Germany as one of a million Syrian refugees admitted to that country. The odyssey, which involved incredible peril on the Mediterranean in an inflatable raft, and a brutal journey on foot through Eastern Europe, might remind one of a certain hero from Greek myth (and indeed a mooring on the Greek Island of Samos became a critical stop along the way).
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We can share the first trailer for the film above, ahead of the film’s theatrical release in October.
Israa in ‘One in a Million’
After the fall of the Assad regime in Syria, Israa like other Syrian exiles could weigh whether to return. For Israa the decision involved a reckoning with the opportunities afforded in Germany but a lingering sense that true fulfillment might be found back home.
“Co-directors Itab Azzam and Jack MacInnes bring a palpable blend of sensitivity and nuance to their portrayal of the Syrian refugee Israa and her loved ones, following them across time, borders, and shifting circumstances,” the Sundance program wrote. “It is clear that the filmmakers fully realize the weight of the trust and privilege that comes with undertaking a longitudinal project: to witness the experiences, challenges, and quiet joys of a remarkably resilient family forced to leave their beloved Aleppo.”
Co-director Itab Azzam is a Syrian native herself. She and MacInness, her filmmaking and life partner, were living in Damascus in 2011 when Syria’s civil war broke out.
“We left for London in August of that year planning to return a few months later, but that day never came,” they write in a directors’ statement. “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 knew we wanted to stay in her life. That was when the idea for One in a Million was born.”
Directors Itab Azzam and Jack MacInnes attend the 2026 Sundance Film Festival Awards Ceremony on January 30, 2026 in Park City, Utah.
One in a Million is directed and produced by Itab Azzam and Jack Macinnes and produced by Oscar winner Raney Aronson-Rath (20 Day in Mariupol), Will Anderson, James Bluemel, and Andrew Palmer. Executive producers include David Fialkow and Nina Sing Fialkow, Harriet Gugenheim, Lucie Kon, Jutta Krug, Adam Lewis, Melony Lewis, Patty Quillin, Patty Quillin, and Joseph Schull.
Watch the trailer for One in a Million above.
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