Return to Homs
With director Talal Derki
New Directors/New Films
Mar 25, 6:15 PM – Museum of Modern Art (Titus 1)
Mar 26, 9:00 PM – Walter Reade Theater
As immersive a documentary of active war as has ever been made, this unsparing account of the struggle for Homs follows-from August 2011 to August 2013-two close friends whose lives are completely altered when their beloved city is bombed into a ghost town. We witness Basset, a charismatic 19-year-old soccer player and iconic performer of protest songs, and Ossama, a 24-year-old media activist who captures the revolution with his camera, transform from peaceful protesters to armed resistance fighters. Derki’s camera, placed inside bombed-out buildings, records insurgents defending their city under siege as battles intensify, panicked civilians run for shelter, and a rising number of comrades are injured or killed. The soundtrack features Basset’s songs interrupted by gunfire and the occasional comment from the director. The images speak for themselves.
