A scene from Of Fathers and Sons (Kino Lorber)

Posing as a war photographer, filmmaker Talal Derki (The Return to Homs) travels deep into a jihadist enclave in northern Syria and gains the trust of a family whose members are fighting for the Al-Nusra Front, a terrorist group with ties to Al Qaeda. Through his lens, we follow patriarch Abu Osama and his prepubescent sons as they wage war against “the infidels.” As a piece of archival material, Derki’s documentary will no doubt be instructive for historians when they look back to examine the different actors of the Salafi jihadist movements.

As a piece of pure filmmaking, however, the movie could’ve benefited from more context. For those already familiar with the West’s brutal colonial history in the Middle East, Abu Osama’s plight can be seen as tragic residue. Just watching the film as is, without any historical background or explanation, could make Abu Osama’s excessive obsession with establishing an Islamic caliphate seem nebulous. It may especially be hard to relate to a man who’s willing to, in his words, sacrifice food for his children to continue the jihad. This is man who named one of his children after Osama Bin Laden and who has no qualms with putting his nine-year-old into a training camp teaching would-be jihadists the art of hostage taking.

But perhaps that is the point. Derki may very well be challenging his audiences—especially Western audiences—to look at the conflict and understand the most hardened extremists. In effect, he may be challenging us to understand the nihilistic jihadists, a hard task I suspect for most viewers but still a task worth taking up because of the film’s unfettered access to radical extremists.

Derki’s bravery in capturing all this—particularly when he follows Abu Osama and other militants right into the thick of the battle zones—deserves the utmost kudos from documentarians and journalists all over.