Nezouh assessment – dreamlike story of life in Damascus throughout Syria’s civil warfare | Films

Here is the second characteristic from Syrian film-maker Soudade Kaadan, set in a Damascus suburb throughout probably the most brutal shelling of the civil warfare, among the many remaining traumatised residents questioning whether or not to remain or go away as refugees heading for the Mediterranean. The resonant title means “displacement” and her pictures of town, modified with some magic-realist results, are very placing.

A middle-aged man, Motaz (Samer al-Masry) is grumpily asserting his authority in entrance of his more and more sceptical household: his spouse is Hala (Kinda Alloush) and they’re mother and father to teen daughter Zeina (Hala Zein), who’s by the way conspiring together with her mom to suppress the information that she has began her interval. She additionally likes a sure boy who retains coming round – budding film-maker Amer (Nizar Alani) – and she or he and her mum are surprised on the information that Motaz would possibly settle for a wedding proposal on Zeina’s behalf from a neighbour who’s suggesting his son, a fighter within the warfare. When a bomb blows an enormous gap within the roof of their condo constructing, it’s terrifying but in addition weirdly liberating; it ventilates their existence and is the supply of daylight – and is the start line for some dreamy reveries.

Nezouh is a sweet-natured movie, and fantastically photographed by Hélène Louvart; it feels as if it has been tailored from a YA graphic novel (although it isn’t). It has actual allure however there’s a patina or sheen of unreality, with some moderately theatrical contrivances which verge on the valuable. However there are good performances, and al-Masry sympathetically suggests Motaz’s tender fragility and loneliness.