Slant Magazine by Elise Nakhnikian
The film is a testament to the power of video to document resistance to corrupt and abusive regimes, but it's also a witness to the limits of that power.
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Syria, Germany · 2013
Rated PG-13 · 1h 34m
Director Talal Derki
Starring
Genre Documentary
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Filmed over three years in Homs, this film accompanies two young men as the war alters their lives. Basset plays for the national football team, and joins the fight for revolution. His friend Ossama is a renowned journalist, whose views attract the attention of the secret service. A modern-times epic of youth in war time.
Slant Magazine by Elise Nakhnikian
The film is a testament to the power of video to document resistance to corrupt and abusive regimes, but it's also a witness to the limits of that power.
It portrays the struggle from the inside, from about as far from the filter of mainstream media as one can get, capturing tense shootouts and the extremes of revolutionary spirit in unnerving detail.
The Guardian by Leslie Felperin
Admittedly, there are a lot of documentaries like this, made by citizen journalists recording uprisings in their homelands, but this is one of the best of the recent crop, and a timely reminder of a conflict that's slipped out of the headlines of late.
The Hollywood Reporter by Neil Young
Derki and his experienced editor Anne Fabini have crafted a sober, sobering bulletin of unambiguous intention and undeniable power.
What the film lacks in context it gains in visceral eyewitness value.
Dance till you drop... dead.