This film represents the successful attempt of two young Syrian activists to create a sensitive and complex depiction of an impossible situation, without oversimplifying what’s at stake in the civil war that’s ravaging their country, and raising some existential questions in a manner that is universal.
We aren’t watching superheroes, but young men who have become soldiers of a lost cause. Although they are very brave, although they have ideals and would do whatever it takes to defend them, the film is edited in such a way that they appear to us - with their moments of hesitation, of hopelessness and even boredom, sometimes showing signs of immaturity and a certain nonchalance specific to their age, all despite the famine surrounding them - very similar to ourselves.
On the other side of the “border” (a road), 500 metres away from this hell on earth, in the unaffected neighbourhoods of Damascus, “normal” life goes on. Witnessing it makes us realise the lunacy of the Syrian regime and see the all-encompassing schizophrenia. The possibility of a better future truly cannot exist amidst such state violence. Thanks to these two filmmakers, we are fully able to feel and grasp this reality. (Vanina Vignal)