PROJECT INFO
NAME: Thank you Soma – شكراً صوما
“Thank you Soma” is a documentary about the relationship between migrant domestic workers and the children they help to raise in the Arab world. Millions of children in the Arab world are being raised by migrant domestic workers, with some children remaining in the care of the same migrant worker well into adulthood. “Thank you Soma” follows Nour, a young Lebanese woman, and Soma, the migrant domestic worker who has played a large part in her upbringing, and continues to look after her and her family more than 24 years later.
Soma arrived from Sri Lanka 33 years ago to find work as a domestic worker in Lebanon. She has worked with Nour’s family since Nour was born, and has been a part of Nour’s life ever since. 24 years later, Nour travels with Soma to Sri Lanka, where she is exposed for the first time to Soma’s life and reality independent of her life with Nour’s family in Lebanon. Soma introduces Nour to her family and friends and shows her around her village, home, school, and her old work, and Nour begins to ask herself questions about the woman who has acted as her “second mother” since the day she was born.
“Thank you Soma” is a reminder for us to not become complacent within our daily comfort, and to continue to question the complexity and injustice inherent in being a migrant domestic worker today.