syrian civil war

Broken Keys

Thu, 23 Mar 2023

In a war-torn Middle Eastern city where music has been banned by Islamic extremists, Karim, a brilliant musician, struggles to rebuild his destroyed piano while trying to escape to Europe.

The Way Out

Sun, 21 Jan 2018

Co-directors Michelle Shephard and David York take an intimate journey with the mother of a young Canadian woman named Amina who left home to join the war in Syria and become a member of ISIS. From Canada to Europe and Turkey and back again, they work various channels seeking what a CSIS officer calls the “exfiltration” of Amina from inside the so-called Islamic State and into the custody of Canadian officials.

Escape from Raqqa

Wed, 06 Mar 2019

Paris, spring 2015. Faustine travels to Syria with her little son to join ISIS; but, once in Raqqa, she soon realizes the hell she is gotten herself into. Her husband Sylvain quickly understands that the French government is powerless to help him, so he plans with some friends a high-risk extraction operation to get his family back.

The Matchmaker

Wed, 31 Aug 2022

A unique interview with Tooba Gondal, the woman who groomed and lured scores of Western women to join ISIS. Using social media, she became a deadly matchmaker, recruiting a number of high-profile “jihadi brides” for ISIS militants in Syria: she allegedly helped organise the transporting of three British schoolgirls, including Shamima Begum, to Syria.

Black Box Syria: The Dirty War

Fri, 02 Oct 2020

A look back over nine years of the Syrian Civil War, an inextricable conflict, like a black box, due to the competing interests of the many factions in presence and those of the foreign powers.

This Is Not a Movie: Robert Fisk and the Politics of Truth

Fri, 06 Sep 2019

For more than forty years, British journalist Robert Fisk has reported on some of the most violent conflicts in the world, from Northern Ireland to the Middle East, always with his feet on the ground and a notebook in hand, travelling into landscapes devastated by war, ferreting out the facts and sending reports to the media he works for with the ambition of catching the interest of an audience of millions.

Of Fathers and Sons

Wed, 15 Nov 2017

Talal Derki returns to his homeland where he gains the trust of a radical Islamist family, sharing their daily life for over two years. His camera focuses on Osama and his younger brother Ayman, providing an extremely rare insight into what it means to grow up in an Islamic Caliphate.

The White Helmets

Fri, 16 Sep 2016

As daily airstrikes pound civilian targets in Syria, a group of indomitable first responders risk their lives to rescue victims from the rubble.

City of Love

Fri, 30 Jun 2017

A Hindu woman elopes with her Muslim lover, moving with him to Syria. Eventually separated by war, she cares for their handicapped child on her own.

Under the Wire

Fri, 07 Sep 2018

On 12 February 2012, two journalists entered war-ravaged Syria. One of them was celebrated Sunday Times war correspondent, Marie Colvin. The other was photographer, Paul Conroy. Their aim was to cover the plight of Syrian civilians trapped in Homs, a city under siege and relentless military attack from the Syrian army. Only one of them returned.

Fear Us Women

Fri, 17 Nov 2017

Fear Us Women follows Hanna Bohman, a Canadian civilian who has spent the last three years in Syria as a volunteer soldier of the YPJ, an all-female Kurdish army, battling ISIS.

This Rain Will Never Stop

Thu, 29 Sep 2022

This Rain Will Never Stop takes the audience on a powerful, visually arresting journey through humanity’s endless cycle of war and peace. The film follows 20-year-old Andriy Suleyman as he tries to secure a sustainable future while navigating the human toll of armed conflict. From the Syrian civil war to strife in Ukraine, Andriy’s existence is framed by the seemingly eternal flow of life and death.

A Comedian in a Syrian Tragedy

Sat, 23 Nov 2019

An intimate portrait of Syrian actor Fares Helou, who calls for freedom of speech, is forced out of his home country and experiences the absurdities of exiled existence, told by Syrian director Rami Farah, who films - and shares - his struggle.

The Story Won't Die

Thu, 29 Apr 2021

THE STORY WON’T DIE, from Award-winning filmmaker David Henry Gerson, is an inspiring, timely look at a young generation of Syrian artists who use their work to protest and process what is currently the world’s largest and longest ongoing displacement of people since WWII. The film is produced by Sundance Award-winner Odessa Rae (Navalny). Rapper Abu Hajar, together with other creative personalities of the Syrian uprising, a post-Rock musician (Anas Maghrebi), members of the first all-female Syrian rock band (Bahila Hijazi + Lynn Mayya), break-dancer (Bboy Shadow), choreographer (Medhat Aldaabal), and visual artists (Tammam Azzam, Omar Imam + Diala Brisly), use their art to rise in revolution and endure in exile in this new documentary reflecting on a battle for peace, justice and freedom of expression. It is an uplifting and humanizing look at what it means to be a refugee in today’s world and offers inspiring and hopeful vantages on a creative response to the chaos of war.

...und der Vater blieb im Krieg. Begegnung mit syrischen Waisen

Tue, 19 Jun 1990

Director Junge was commissioned by the GDR in the country for the first time in the summer of 1970; his film In Syria auf Montage accompanies German engineers who train workers in the Homs textile factory. Shortly after filming ended, Hafez al-Assad put himself under the dictator. Twenty years later emerged ... the father stayed in the war over a youth club with Syrian orphans in Bad Saarow, whose fathers had died in the Lebanon war and accompanied them to Syria, where they were housed in separate, elite "schools of martyr children". Multi-faceted documents that oscillate between peaceful and tense, hopeful and unsettled.

The Shelter

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Leila is a former concert pianist from Aleppo, which bore much of the brunt of the ghastly Syrian Civil War. Now living in exile in Paris, she works as a caregiver for Georges, a diplomat nearing the end of his life. Within the confines of his opulent apartment, filled with relics of colonial memory, Leila begins to experience ghostly visitations from her late husband and son. At first tender, these apparitions gradually take on a sinister form, blurring the lines between trauma and madness, memory and haunting. As the echo of distant bombs returns, the walls between Georges’s apartment and Leila’s lost home begin to collapse.

Hors Chant

Sat, 16 Apr 2016

Filles du feu

Thu, 24 Aug 2017

They are just 20 years old and are fighting against the Islamic State in the Syrian Kurdish regions. In a region of the world where women normally have to walk three steps behind men, the fact that they are under arms together with their brothers is of particular significance. Their colorful scarves and their courage have made them famous.

Beside Heroes

Wed, 23 Nov 2016

Wali, an ex-sniper, leaves Canada to fight the Islamic state. He meets two Americans: Rebaz and Zyrian. One is a veteran of the war in Iraq. The other is a homosexual idealist. They meet the Kurds, a welcoming people. Together, they will confront the fanatical Islamic terrorists. Beside Heroes, an uncensored documentary that tells the tale of three volunteer fighters who realized that to change the world, you have to act.

The Catastrophe Garden

Fri, 01 Apr 2022

It is a daring idea: to grow food from old mattresses in a desolate camp at the edge of a war zone. When a refugee scientist meets two quirky professors, they must confront their own catastrophes - and make a garden grow. Short film now streaming on Waterbear.com.