Terki avoids too much moralizing or even authoring, allowing his camera and presence to fade into the background of most scenes.

[Derki's poetic narration] serve to frame "Of Fathers and Sons" with the feeling that you're seeing a warped dream of family survival, one in which still-noticeable human bonds can't help but be corroded by isolating hatred and extremist ideology.

"Of Fathers and Sons" is ultimately more impressive for its access than it is revealing of drives or beliefs. If Derki's goal was to capture what causes ideology to spread, he and his camera look without seeing.

Derki’s film is an amazing feat of staying calm in circumstances where I personally would be just praying to survive, let alone having the fortitude to think about framing...