Return to Homs (2013)
Director: Talal Derki
Editor: Anne Fabini
Producers: Orwa Nyrabia and Diana El Jeiroudi, in Co-production with Hans Robert Eisenhauer.
International Sales: Journeyman Pictures.
Arabic with English/Spanish/French/German subtitles, 91min, 2K DCP 5.1 and a TV Version of 53min.
Acknowledgements: Sundance Grand Jury Award for World Documentary, IDFA Opening Night Film, George Polk Award for Documentary, Golden Horn at the Krakow Film Festival… among many others. SWR/Arte, SVT, CBC, POV/PBS, NHK…
SYNOPSIS
War changes people, including 19-year-old Basset Saroot, who went from star goalkeeper for the Syrian national soccer team to peaceful advocate for Arab Spring reforms to armed insurgent. Return to Homs, which focuses on Basset and his ragtag group’s transformation and struggles, is a heart-stopping, often wrenching study of the brutal war President Bashar al-Assad’s regime has waged against the Syrian people — a war fought mostly out of camera range that has produced epic heroism and tragedy. Winner of Sundance’s 2014 World Cinema Grand Jury Prize for Documentary, this is an unprecedented view inside a conflict that many accuse the world of overlooking. (by POV)