"In Syria" is a feel-bad movie, and it should be because it's about the recent civil war in Syria and its effect on a small group of people holed up in an apartment...waiting and hoping for some escape. The problem is to even leave the place invites death from snipers. Other problems they encounter are rape gangs, low provisions and how to cope with the stress and boredom. It's all very difficult to watch...and very similar to movies made about the recent Bosnian civil war. But, also an important film because it exposes a part of modern history many of us rarely think about and which films generally avoid. Well made and worth your time. Just be forewarned...there is a very difficult to watch rape scene. Anyone who has experienced this sort of awful abuse might do best to avoid the film or watch it with someone for support.
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planktonrules25 October 2017
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TheLittleSongbird1 October 2017'Insyriated' (its UK title), although not perfect, turned out to be one of the most unsettling (as it ought to be considering the subject matter) and powerful films seen in the cinema this year to me. It is a very good film, almost great in fact, that is deserving seemingly of a wider release.
Visually, 'Insyriated' is highly atmospheric and startling. The cinematography keeps the viewer constantly at the heart of the action and gives a large amount of urgency while not going over-the-top. The editing is taut and adds to 'Insyriated's' unsettling nature, as does, and even more so, the sound editing. The lighting is haunting without being too dark. The sets are suitably confined, effectively giving a sense of claustrophobia. Philippe Van Leeuw directs with assurance and control of the subject matter, being more successful as director than as writer.
Parts of the script are tight and provoking. The story is never dull and treats its subject with an unnerving quality that really wrecks the nerves. The horrors, tension and suspense are not dealt with excessively or sledge-hammer-like nor are they sugar-coated or trivialised. Yet it doesn't hold back and takes no prisoners, which was appropriate and throughout there is a clear sense of danger.
The characters seem real and their conflicts easy to identify with every step of the way, even when they make misjudged decisions they also come over as meaning well which stops the viewer from getting frustrated at them. A great cast makes this possible, with the best performances coming from Hiam Abbass, Diamand Abou Abboud and Juliette Navis. The stages of the film where the truth of the events (primarily the shooting) is discovered are particularly well acted.
For all those strengths, there are a couple of shortcomings with 'Insyriated'. While the script is generally tight and thought-provoking, there are times where it lacks nuance and subtlety which would have given the harrowing, hard-edged tone a little more dimension. But it's the score that is the biggest issue, very mawkish and far too low-key in instrumentation which creates a completely out of kilter tone with the atmosphere, when either a more robust, stirring approach was far more suitable, just as effective would have been for the film to have no score.
Overall, very good and almost great which it could easily have been with a little more nuance and a far more appropriate music score. 8/10 Bethany Cox -
Morten_518 November 201728th STOCKHOLM INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL. DAY 4, NOV 11th 2017. Swedish premiere.
In an apartment in Damascus, in war-torn Syria, a matriarch is struggling, despite all odds, to keep her family and a neighbouring woman safe.
A Belgian-French-Lebanese co-production, "Insyriated" (2017), written and directed by Belgian cinematographer-turned-writer-director Philippe Van Leeuw, was shot in an apartment building in Beirut, Lebanon. With strong acting performances and well-balanced direction, this gripping drama is a feat of shattering realism. -
rafael10525 June 2017I came out of the cinema about a half hour ago and still have not been able to utter a single word. So deeply was I moved by this film. It is a very topical picture because it gives us an insight into what people are going through in Syria. At the same time, it is a universal story of war and what becomes of humanity in times of great suffering. It could be any war, anywhere. In some senses, almost a Sartreian reflection on the human condition. Beautifully and powerfully acted. The cast is nothing short of amazing. The camera-work is just right, giving a real sense of urgency to the action but never overdoing it. The screenplay is tight, and the directing is sure. I could have done without the incidental music, but that's really nitpicking. All in all, a great piece of filmmaking and a film that is bound to become a classic.
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Set somewhere in Syria in the ongoing Civil War we meet Oum Yazan (Hiam Abass -- 'Bladerunner 2049') who is holding out in her flat as the war rages. The block has been hit several times and she has barricaded herself in with her family and neighbours who she has taken in.
The every day tasks of life - like dusting and cooking - take on a new emphasis as she struggles to adapt to incessant change whilst trying to cling to some sense of normalcy. As the bombs get closer so does the horrors of war and cleaning the dust alone will no longer cut it.
Now this is an excellent film for various reasons. The tension is visceral and the acting is all flawless. However, it is the gripping nature of the story that pulls you in and the immediacy of what is happening - whilst the World does next to nothing to help the innocent victims.
It has a relatively short running time of 83 minutes and some will not be pleased at the ending - but how do you have an ending when the end is still (as I write) not yet in sight? Made in a Belgian, French and Lebanese co production and presented in Arabic with good sub titles. If you like your cinema to be challenging thought provoking and stray from the beaten path then this may very well suit you - recommended. -
rubenm1 November 2017Most war movies are about soldiers and generals, trying to defeat the enemy. Not this one. 'Insyriated' is about what war does to the daily life of ordinary citizens. That can be even more gruesome to watch than scenes from a battlefield.
The film is set almost entirely in an apartment, where an extended family of nine tries to survive the war. The neighbourhood is constantly bombed, snipers are roaming the streets, there is no running water and no cell phone coverage. The front door of the apartment is barricaded. The rest of the building has been abandoned, left to looters and rapists.
In these circumstances, the family tries to live life as normal as possibly. During air raids, the teenage daughters listen to music on their smartphone, one earbud for each, as teenagers do. The grandfather quietly smokes his cigarettes and hugs his grandson. In the morning, family members quarrel about who can use the bathroom.
But the war is everywhere. There is no escape from it. The film shows how the lives of the family members are increasingly being dominated by fear, despair and anger. These human emotions are far more powerful to show the effects of war than even the most intense battlefield scene.
The decision to film everything within one apartment is a masterstroke. It creates a claustrophobic tension, and it helps the viewer to identify with the family members. Of course, this only works with a superb cast. The two powerful female leads stand out in particular. The mother, played by Arab-Israeli actress Hiam Abass, is great in hiding her true emotions and suppressing her fear to prevent unsettling her children. When she breaks down, at last, the impact is devastating. But the Lebanese actress Diamand Bou Abboud is no less impressive as the upstairs neighbour who has fled to the apartment with her baby, after her own apartment has been bombed.
One of the great things about the film is also that it doesn't spell out the war. In fact, nothing is being explained. We don't know who is fighting whom, or why. It doesn't matter. War is ugly anyhow. Apart from the title, there is even no indication that it takes place in Syria. It is a universal story.
Apart from being an emotional punch in the stomach, the film contains a lot of suspense. The script is very clever. Already in the first few minutes, a terrible incident creates a heart breaking dilemma for some family members. During the rest of the film, some other high-impact events make you sit on the edge of your chair.
'Insyriated' is definitively one of the best films I've seen this year. Maybe even the best. It would make a great candidate for the foreign language Oscars. What a pity that the producing countries, France and Belgium, have chosen other films. Neither one can even stand in the shadow of 'Insyriated'. -
steveo12218 January 2018The home front...when home is in the middle of the sht. Excellent character study of life 'endured'.
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johngraham-8822714 September 2017My link http://wp.me/p2R05n-1bA to my blog review of Insyriated is here. It has a very well crafted dramatic take on war without indulging in political dirge. There are claustrophobic and surreal elements to it a bit like Under the Shadow. Holding up as a film made in Lebanon with the principals professionals the remainder of the cast are Syrian refugees. The plot is only over one day. Using a hand held camera it almost recruits you as another pair of eyes reaching into this compelling dark story.
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We need the power of art to help us imagine the unimaginable. Here Belgian director Philippe Van Leeuw plunges us into the hell of Syrians clinging together in the ruins of a Damascus apartment building, under constant threat of annihilation. The door is bolted shut with two heavy cross-beams. But they can't keep out the horrors. Any knock could be an enemy. These people are in harrowing vulnerability. At the core is a family: the indomitable Mother Courage Oum, her young son and two daughters, her father-in-law, and her maid. They have temporarily taken in a young male cousin and the young couple from the ruined apartment upstairs, Samir, his wife Halima and their infant son. In the absence of her husband Monzer, Oum runs the show. Her courage, sensitivity and will make her the embodiment of what Syria - if any - might ever survive. The Syria of the people, that is, not of Assad. The film's effect is to reveal how horrible the costs that politics can wreak on a people. The film is shot intensely, with a handheld camera, covering the events of one day, with a tense throb of strings in the score. We feel the tension of the characters under siege. We don't know the politics of anyone here, not the besieged, not the snipers, not the rapists, not the helpers. But when a people are subjected to this kind of suffering, a city and a culture condemned to such ruination, issues be hanged. Nothing can justify such an assault. We share the characters' shocks. We expect to follow Samir and Halima in their flight to Beirut, so are severely jolted when he's immediately shot down in the parking lot. Oum calls Halima courageous, but warns her that she will become more courageous still. This the rape scene bears out, when Halima sacrifices herself to save the others. She believes Oum set her up as a decoy. That doesn't seem plausible, given how protective Oum has been toward her, but the suspicion typifies the distrust a civil war breeds even in such a close community. Oum's daughters grow up during this day. The older warms towards her cousin as he realizes a bravery even he didn't know he had. The younger daughter seems thoughtlessly selfish, squandering valuable water to wash her hair. But she realizes an astonishing moment of maturity when she begs Halima's forgiveness for wanting her to suffer in her stead. The film closes eloquently on the grandfather's profile. He has seen too much, lost too much, learned too much, so he sits there stolidly, staring out on the violent ruins about. Like a pulse he measures out his life in cigarette puffs, sending smoke out to the ruins. His face is blank so it doesn't say anything - yet says everything. We read into it all the emotions we have found in our glimpse into his crumbling life. Despite his helplessness, age and rotting guts, he maintains his dignity and his doting love for his grandson. But we see a tear gathering in one eye.
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The only reason this movie gets 4 stars is for the acting. The characters themselves, barring the woman who gives herself to defend the group, are a cowardly bunch. Two ablebody males hiding in the kitchen while another two males are doing that to a mother in the next room; they do nothing? Was the young man's redemption supposed to be him going out at night to collect a body he assumed was already dead? Cowards.
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I_Ailurophile1 December 2022By the time only a scant few minutes have elapsed already 'In Syria' is so profoundly impactful that only the word "excruciating" comes to mind. I'm immediately taken with Jean-Luc Fafchamps' quietly haunting score and Virginie Surdej's smart cinematography; a few notes and one slow pan of the camera speak volumes. The assembled cast have been on-screen for mere moments and already their acting comes across as so superbly nuanced and sincerely, emotionally wrought that I'm not at all surprised to learn how highly acclaimed this has been. So much about this film is superficially simple and uncomplicated - the premise, the plot, the production design and art direction, Philippe Van Leeuw's direction - yet there is a resounding intelligence and sharp finesse to every element, and the result is unfailingly stunning. Not one instant is wasted or anything less than piercing: this is as utterly phenomenal as it is difficult to watch.
Many movies have been made about the "horrors of war," but the most violent recreations will never hold a candle to the searing, unyielding drama of the more wide-ranging ramifications of conflict. Constant terror, impossible choices, forced isolation and containment, distrust, necessary strict conservation of limited resources, and the mounting pressures of crowded, guarded living are juxtaposed with reflections of love, tenderness, innocence, wistful hope for relief, and subtle intimations of what has been lost. This balance of contrasting sordidness, the bleak realities of our world, is more than enough to make the picture painfully, wretchedly upsetting. That discrete bursts of awful violence are peppered in, accentuating and amplifying the very personal and soul-destroying cost of such upheaval and all that comes with it, lets 'In Syria' turn the corner from "extremely depressing" to "abjectly horrifying." And still, that the feature maintains a considerably muted tone all the while, downplaying as much of the course of events as possible, only serves to heighten the effect of every last iota.
Filmmaker Van Leeuw has given us an immensely powerful, all too commonly relevant portrait of civilian life under the looming specter of war; this movie has a particular setting yet could just as easily take place in any time or country. Like the broadly low-key, tone, the singular space in which we meet our characters only fosters greater tension with the simultaneous feeling of claustrophobia but also being completely unable to leave such confinement for the terrible dangers beyond the walls. To that end: while everyone who worked on this is to be congratulated for their stellar contributions, not least Van Leeuw and the cast, it can't be overstated how important the work of the sound department is in this instance, even more than for other films. Except for outright horror films, I'm not sure when the last time was that I saw a feature in which audio and sound effects, portending doom and enormous peril that is unseen for the characters, audience, or both, was so majorly important to the viewing experience. That the inclusion here is so ruthlessly clear and pristine is a credit to all on hand for the significance it has in the presentation.
Not one word or title card needs to be appended to emphasize the crucial message underlying 'In Syria,' for this reflects the horrible truth of the dire circumstances of living in a war zone, a potential situation from which no one is entirely safe. By the same token, it requires no imagination at all to envision a similar scenario unfolding even outside the auspices of martial conflict specifically. And with that said, it can only be repeated that everything about the feature, what we see, hear, or feel, only augments the already pervasive, gnawing agitation the viewing experience inculcates. Only in the sense of how finely it's all executed could it be said this is a pleasant watch, for otherwise the film is distinctly, pointedly distressing; viewer discretion is necessarily advised just for the harrowing nature of the trauma involved. Even at that, however, Van Leeuw and his cast and crew have crafted a picture so mightily potent that the same three words apply here as to any of the worst headlines in real life: "don't look away." Rich and perfect in its construction, totally spellbinding in its finished form, 'In Syria' is a must-see. -
kmonfared14 December 2018At first you might think this is a movie about war, but it isn't. It goes through the very struggles of everyday life, in an excruciating detail. It reminded me of "besieged" and of the "patient stone". Touching, and deep.
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The movie left me painstakingly unnerved. The unrest that they have managed to portray without showing anything "on-field" as such, is just so overwhelming. The fact that they managed to build up so much out of just three or four rooms and that too in 1 and a half hour is simply unbelievable. Its emotional charge is truly heart-wrenching. It also gives us the perspectives of the people who actually, eventually get affected during these war times. Most of the movies cover soldiers, warriors, fighters, and officials but the common people, the helpless, women, and the next generations who are witnessing such brutality in their tender ages which will scar them for life... They are the ones who are equally affected, if not more.
In terms of the cinematography, I love how the camera follows a person and his/her perspective and then shifts it to another person in the same shot and then you follow that person's perspective.
A few remarkable scenes for me; the one where the mother is assuring her child of his and everyone else's safety and that the war's gonna end soon even though she has no way of knowing that. In these times hope is one of the only things that keeps you thriving and as a parent you want your child to feel secure. It was a very sacred moment for me... Very intimate and pure. All the scenes take place when the characters are looking at themselves through the mirror. Somehow I feel that whenever they're looking in the mirror, they're confronting their demons at that point in time. The first time when Delhina goes there after she's seen Samir get shot but has been compelled to keep it a secret. The second time when the mother goes there when she knows that it's immoral to keep that information from Hamila but that it's necessary at that point in time. And same applies to Hamila when she's looking in the mirror after the tragic and brutal assault that she has to go through. Every time, they are struggling with their own demons that lie within themselves. The scene where the grandfather - Mustafa is going through all the old pictures! A quote that I had read somewhere just came into my mind... "We could spend all night trading tales of lost loves. Nothing makes the past a sweeter place to visit than the prospect of imminent death..." I felt it. Hamila's mixed emotions of anger towards the culprits, as well as the mother, the disgust, helplessness and concern for her baby, at once overwhelm continuously and its manifestation is so real and yet minimalistic. I guess that's what makes it so real.
The end was just superb. The silence and the smoking spoke so much about everything... After a point, you just wish you were numb. So that you wouldn't feel so much. Because sometimes it's just way too much to bear. You wish this was all just a dream maybe. And it would just vanish one fine morning before you wake up. Or maybe you wish that you did... For in these times, that seems to be the only sensible way to be at peace.
A wartime movie set up indoors... Incredible. -
azizmalhas18 July 2019First of all, the concept of the movie is brilliant- execution was below expectations explaining such a war! Also I'm a big fan of Hiam Abbas, but I'm not sure what went wrong here. I just hope for once that they bring people of the same ACCENT. Don't tell me it doesn't matter! Because it sure does, it's part of the story identity. Too many flaws narrating the story. Not well connected. I was really excited to witness a masterpiece but unfortunately it was just normal.
I appreciate the effort done here, but it didn't serve the story well. -
qui_j11 March 2020This is just a random collection of scenes from the war zone of Syria. There's a story in there somewhere but it got buried in all the rubbish. Yet another film from the region that never quite tells the story. The ending is just utter rubbish.