Filmed on three smartphones by Fazili and his wife, Fatima Hussaini, and their two daughters, it chronicles their three-year journey from their home in Afghanistan to Europe in search for asylum.

[5] Fazili and Hussaini, who are self-taught filmmakers, owned Kabul's Art Café and Restaurant, a place where men and women with reformist beliefs would congregate, until conservative religious leaders organized a boycott and a police raid, forcing the couple to shut it down.

Without permission from authorities, the Fazilis moved to Germany the same month they were granted refugee status, because of the poor treatment they received in the detention center in Hungary.

The site's critical consensus reads, "Midnight Traveler puts a harrowing personal face on the modern refugee crisis, driving home the heartbreakingly relatable odysseys of the displaced.

[13] Wendy Ide of Screen International called the film an "affecting, essential documentary" and wrote, "the suffering, fear and humiliation that they experience is balanced by moments of warmth and an artist's magpie eye for unexpected glimpses of beauty.

"[14] Simran Hans of The Observer wrote, "the combination of perspectives paints a vivid and hopeful portrait of a family, as well as an indictment of the refugee crisis".

[15] Gary Garrison of The Playlist gave the film an A− grade, writing, "It does not set out to tell The Refugee story, nor does it shoehorn statistics in about violence in Afghanistan or families forced from their homes ...

Midnight Traveler, rather, is a film about a family, about the hardship and inhumanity they have endured, about their bravery, about their love, about their hope, and, above all else, about their desire to be safe and in control of their lives and bodies and destinies and fates.