Filmed over several years, Rami Farah’s documentary is a testament to aspirations rendered futile by the Syrian civil war. What started as an uprising against a tyrannical leader, in the wake of the Arab Springs, gradually became a generalised massacre, under the helpless eyes of those who had pioneered the social movement. One of them, actor Fares Helou, is the protagonist of the film, who uses his notoriety to aid the revolutionary cause before he is forced to leave the country. The filmmaker follows him to France, where Fares and his family live in asylum, capturing without complacency the actor’s worries, set against both his efforts to adapt to a new life, and the violent escalation of the conflict in Syria. While his daughters gradually integrate in French society, Fares, more and more, takes refuge in the attic to watch on social media fragments of the events taking place back home, still hoping for the eventual downfall of dictator Bashar al Asaad — a hope that we, the viewers of 2020, know to be in vain. (by Liri Alienor Chapelan)