Tareq Hadhad (Ayham Abou Ammar) is the first member of his family to come to Antigonish as a refugee from Syria.  Soon to follow are his father Issam (Hatem Ali) and his mother, Shahnaz (Yara Sabri).  A chocolatier by trade and not content to sit at home, Issam begins to make chocolates out of his home kitchen.  His treats soon enamor the local community, and as the business grows Tareq finds it harder than ever to balance the family business and his own dreams of completing medical school. 

Getting its name from the Hadhad’s successful chocolate company, Peace by Chocolate is a sweet, inspiring film directed by Jonathan Keijser and co-written with Abdul Malik.  At only 96 minutes, the film has a wide arc to cover and wastes little time doing so.  Tackling themes such as the immigrant experience, xenophobia, family dynamics, and the pursuit of one’s dreams, Peace by Chocolate handles these heavy topics with enough dexterity so that it never gets too weighed down and can remain a feelgood time at the movies.  

At the center of the film is a family drama about a son who wants to carve his own path in life away from his father’s business. The chemistry between Amman and Ali really helps to drive the film forward. There is a deep care and admiration for the real-life Tareq and Issam on which the film is based on. The script does well to not paint any particular individual as the bastion of truth or righteousness; they are all doing what they believe in their heart to be the correct thing even if it fuels the central conflict between them. Towards the middle of the second act, there is a scene shared between the father and son where the elder, with barely even a rudimentary understanding of English, comes to realize his reliance on his son; and the script, whether it is fully conscious of it or not, begins to reveal itself as a struggle to find an equilibrium for the pair.  This story is enough to carry the film, however, the script does tend to retreat into the realm of melodrama and contrived conflict with mixed success to move the story forward. 

One such instance is the very unfortunate handling of Kelly (Alika Autran), an established candy smith whose business begins to slip when the tight-knit community catches wind of Issam’s talents. The racial tensions are an understandable inclusion for narrative tension, but the writing of her character is so elementary in its execution that it is hard to justify its place in the script as it is not doing much in the way of adding to the story. Autran finds her character oftentimes entering a scene just to sneer at the Hadhads and offer a quick, pointed comment about how she is a true Antigonishian. There is a redemption arc to be had – the film is hesitant to let any of its characters end up on an unsavory note – but it just lands flat given the poor handling of Kelly on the page. 

Oftentimes, the answer to the family’s struggle comes from the affable Frank (Mark Camacho). As so often is the case, the supporting roles in these kinds of films tend to stick out as they add a differing, third party view to the situation at hand and make it easier for the audience to relate. The script sets up the Hadhads as a family that we want to see succeed, and with any luck, we see some of ourselves in the friendly, outgoing nature of Frank. While the script relies almost too heavily on Frank to come in at exactly the right moment with the perfect solution, Camacho brings such warmth and character to the role that, despite his importance in the arc of the film, his character is rather underdeveloped and one-note on the page. 

Peace by Chocolate is far from a perfect film, but it is lighthearted and enjoyable. It is a little frustrating how uncommitted to actually achieving conflict it is which can make it feel a little longer of a watch than it actually is. It is always building up to something, but before the bang, Frank comes in to smooth over the misunderstanding and it starts building up to the next averted crisis. Its tweeness, akin to a Hallmark holiday film where no matter the circumstances everything will be resolved with a perfect little bow, is its biggest downfall almost like it is afraid to show the struggles faced by the family in any real and meaningful way. You can only cry wolf so much before people stop believing you, in the same way, Keijser and Malik can only keep teasing at a conflict so many times before we learn the pot is never going to boil over. When we consider that Peace by Chocolate, however, was never meant to be a deep-dive analysis of the Syrian Refugee Crisis, it succeeds in what it really was trying to do: highlight just one success story of a family that had lost everything and came to a new country to rebuild their lives together. In that sense, Peace by Chocolate is a blazing success and an absolute delight to watch.