written by: Brandt Andersen
produced by: Brandt Andersen, Ossama Bawardi, Ryan Busse & Charlie Endean
directed by: Brandt Andersen
rated: PG-13 (for strong violent content/bloody images, thematic material, a racial slur, and smoking)
runtime: 105 min.
U.S. release date: December 31, 2025, and January 9, 2026

It isn’t lost on me that American writer/producer/director Brandt Anderson is called “I Was A Stranger”, considering it’s a film distributed by Angel Studios, Inc. It’s a studio known for its “values-based” films that often have Christian themes, and here is a title that references a Bible verse in Matthew 25:35-36, in which Jesus states that how well we treat others will determine our standing in the eternal world on Judgement Day. It goes hand in hand with “Love your neighbor as yourself, a core edict that is mentioned in the previous chapter. Such a reference may suggest that Anderson’s directorial debut will focus on how we treat each other, and while it does, it also doesn’t go out of its way to hit us over the head with any particular brand of messaging.

So, if the involvement of Angel Studios is a deterrent for you, rest assured: here is a secular offering that follows a quintet of characters who cross paths in various ways over the course of a year.

Over four centuries ago, William Shakespeare collaborated with others on a play about the historical figure Sir Thomas More. In it, he wrote a speech in which More passionately defends refugees, culminating in a poignant reference to their plight. “I Was A Stranger” opens with a title card that shares an excerpt from Shakespeare as spoken by Sir Thomas More:

Imagine that you see the wretched strangers.
Their babies at their backs and their poor luggage.
Plodding to the ports and coasts for transportation.
And that you sit as kings in your desires.
Authority quite silent by your brawl.
But chartered unto them.
What would you think: To be thus used?
This is The Stranger’s Case.
And this is your mountainish inhumanity.

From there, we see the Chicago skyline as a drone camera moves along the river into the city, following Dr. Amira Homsi (Yasmine Al Massri), who fled Syria with her daughter, Rasha (Massa Daoud), eight years ago. She can be seen walking under the Trump Tower, and one can’t help but think of the irony of the image, considering the xenophobic rhetoric we’ve heard from the White House.

The first of five chapters in Anderson’s movie is “The Doctor”, which introduces us to the five characters who will eventually interact with one another. While working at a Chicago hospital in 2023, something triggers Amira’s memories, and the film then follows her back to Aleppo, Syria, where she served as a combat surgeon during the Civil War. While there, she worked at a hospital where she treated soldiers from both sides of the conflict, which often drew ire from her fellow Syrians. She reflects on a family gathering held for her birthday. It was sadly short-lived when a rocket struck her father’s home, instantly killing everyone. Amir and Rasha were recovered in the rubble, and the pair wound up escaping Syria in the trunk of a car.

Their journey will serve as the framework for “I Was A Stranger”, as we witness the struggles and trauma that an assortment of characters endure as they search for a more stable life that will provide safety, opportunities, and freedom.

They will eventually meet “The Soldier”,  Mustafa (Yahya Mahayni), who has begun to question his loyalty to dictator Bashar al-Assad and the regime he has served. This is especially true after he is involved in the death of a young boy who was lined up before a firing squad because of his local graffiti against the fascist regime. The conflicted soldier will come into contact with “The Poet”, Fathi (Ziad Bakri), a patriarch who will also escape Syria, and “The Smuggler” named Marwan, a no-nonsense father who is taking money from emigrants in desperate situations, unconcerned with what their fate after he guides them to a boat that will chart the Mediterranean Sea.

We also meet “The Captain” named Stavros (Constantine Markoulakis), a character sympathetic to the plight of those seeking better prosperity away from Syria. His days working for the Hellenic Coast Guard, based in Greece, consist of “search and rescue” missions that can retrieve hundreds of refugees in a single day. He sadly doesn’t have much time for his young soccer-loving son and has become quite distraught over the plight of those he has helped at sea. Unfortunately, some wind up dead, despite his attempts, and this compounds his grief.

None of these individual stories meets a happy ending. That’s not really Anderson’s goal here. Instead, “I Was A Stranger” sets out to humanize the precarious situations these characters find themselves in. None of the five characters we get to know is inherently cold-blooded or outright ruthless, but their situations and occupations may lead them to commit cruelty. Do they have a choice? Probably not. Still, we can have compassion for people who find themselves struggling with doing potentially despicable acts. Watching these characters is to remind ourselves that nothing is black-and-white, and that there’s always more going on than what we see at face value – or what we’re told online.

For “I Was A Stranger”, Anderson is working from his 2020 short “Refugee” (which also starred Al Massri and Sy), which prominently features a mother desperately trying to flee Syria. Expanding that into a feature film gives Anderson an opportunity to provide backstory and populate the mother’s journey (in this case, Al Massri’s Dr. Amira) with complex characters who either share similar journeys or experience eye-opening moments of clarity.

Perhaps the film would’ve been better off with a smaller cast of characters, since it feels like as soon as we get to know one of their stories, we transition to another chapter. Sure, some overlap occurs across the chapters, but giving the actors more time to embody who these people are would benefit the overall story and viewers.  It all moves a little too fast for its own good, often jerking us from one emotional situation to another.

Regardless, “I Was a Stranger” does a good job at putting emotional moments on screen without feeling too manipulative. Some may not agree with that, but I definitely felt an earnestness here in the storytelling approach. It’s easy to feel for people who get hit with one obstacle after another, as they experience loss and harrowing situations while they are simply yearning for a better life.

While the film may not be as powerful and harrowing as Agnieszka Holland’s “Green Border,” which follows a Syrian refugee family as they make their way from Belarus to Poland via Germany. Holland’s film closely follows this one family and the group they travel with, rather than interweaving other characters as Anderson does here. Again, while Anderson’s intentions are earnest, there are too many times when we’re pulled out of one story and thrust into another, which quickly becomes jarring and repetitive.

By the time Anderson brings us back to the hospital in Chicago, we come full circle back to Dr. Amira looking over some X-rays. In the background, circling around her is Chicago PD’s Jason Beghe as an American doctor who is curious about her, and then, in a bizarre move, “I Was a Stranger” abruptly ends. It’s an odd ending, one that feels better suited for a television episode where we expect to continue the story.

Going back to the title: if, after watching this film, you find yourself reflecting on how you treat others or what your own experience as a stranger was like, hopefully arriving at a greater understanding and/or empathy for yourself and fellow humans, then at least there’s that.

RATING: **