The music of when strangers meet

Kayhan Kalhor (left), international master of the Persian spiked kamancheh fi ddle, and Kurdish singer Aynur Dogan in the fi lm The Music of Strangers: Yo-Yo Ma and the Silk Road Ensemble. PROVIDED TO CHINA DAILY

No better time

"They think there isn't time for music," Azmeh says in the film. "That's when people need music. People need at least one moment of happiness, but the reality on the ground doesn't make that easy.

"When the Syrian revolution started," he continues, "I found myself experiencing emotions that are far more complex than I can express in my music. The journey is you look for your voice and sometimes you think you've found it. Then once you have it, it changes."

Just the tip of the iceberg. Ma said the film has been translated into Arabic and will be systematically screened through all the refugee camps in the months and years ahead, until there's no need to do it anymore, no need "to put a human face on what is otherwise recognized by society as numbers and a nuisance.

"What we're trying to do is to say: Okay, wait. There are ways of actually recognizing humanity if we don't just say I'm afraid and therefore I'm going to put up a wall. But if you actually take the time to look at the human faces of people, you then are able to build bridges between a refugee community and a local community, to say actually there are things that could happen that could enhance everybody's life."