“Ubadah” .. a lone youtuber despite millions of followers

Very far from his fan base and geographical followers, the young Syrian YouTuber Obada Khair al-Din lives in the Netherlands, which is the European country to which his family took refuge years ago, and where no one knows him, as Obada makes his videos in Arabic, while most of those who watch his work live in the countries Arabic.

Between his overwhelming fame on the Internet and his alienation in the environment in which he lives, the Dutch documentary “cult” is directed by the Dutchman Saqr Khadri, and it was recently shown on one of the Dutch state TV channels.

“I have more than two million followers on YouTube,” says Obada, a group of Dutch youth who, like him, were waiting for their turn in front of a food cart. At all in the Netherlands, what he does on his YouTube page of various content is in Arabic, and does not fit the language of the country in which he lives.

Ubadah’s

conversation with Dutch youth attracted the attention of the owner of the food cart, who found it very difficult to pronounce the name of the Syrian young man, in an incident that reveals one aspect of the crisis that Ubadah is experiencing and on which the film focuses, that is, his fragmented life between two worlds: his fame in the Arab world that he left, and his unity in Western country in which he lives.

Ubadah and his father..a message of grief and tension

In addition to worship, the Dutch documentary film cares about his father, so that it can be said that the film is divided equally between the two characters, where the conflict between father and son is an example of the challenges faced by immigrant fathers and sons together in countries that sometimes follow social rules that differ from the places in which they were born and raised.

And if the quick synthesis characterizes most of the scenes that are interested in worship, the documentary creates a different method in its treatment of the father’s story, as it asks him to write a long letter to his son that he himself delivers in classical Arabic.

The film begins with quick scenes of a cult that summarizes his daily life, which is completely dominated by his activity on the Internet.

Obada also works periodically on the comedies that he makes for his channel, as he has the special talent to make millions laugh, which made him achieve great fame on YouTube, which prompted the management of the famous site to give him the shield of popular channels, which is the shield that the young Syrian holds with great pride in one of his scenes. the film.

The film devotes a space to the father’s long message that reveals his concerns and his tense relationship with his son, and certainly his great love for him. He and his brothers were the reason why the father and mother left Syria during the war, and headed, despite the dangers, to the Netherlands in which they live today in a small village.

Ubadah’s father is upset with his YouTuber son, as he sees that what his son is doing is an unprofitable act.

“I want to become an actor or a singer” .. The struggle of the son with his father

In two parallel tracks, the film monitors the diaries of the father and son, and when the two paths intersect, the two characters collide. The father still sees what his son is doing as useless work, and wants him to study in the Netherlands, as academic study alone can build a good future according to the father, while the son wants to continue What he does on YouTube, to grow him and become a public figure.

“I want to become an actor in the Netherlands,” reveals Ubadah, who still stumbles a lot in his Dutch language. Ubadah is still producing material for his YouTube channel, which is sometimes represented by being an actor in comedic clips, and has been trying for some time to try himself in singing, The film accompanies him when he is recording a song that mixes Arabic and Dutch with a young Syrian refugee as well.

The archival material will be essential in the part that concerns Ubadah’s father, as he had recorded many scenes of his son from his birth until he left Syria. These clips recorded general scenes of the family’s home in Damascus, and other scenes that gather the large family that was interconnected as described by the father.

Ubadah’s father is overwhelmed with tears when he remembers his father, who died years ago while he was in the Netherlands. Ubadah’s father feels guilty for leaving his father, and tries to make up for it by getting closer to his son, while the latter is almost suffocating from the family’s chains.