Saeed and Milad, two art students living a carefree life in Damascus, decide to join the Syrian revolution. They move to the conservative, working-class suburb of Douma, liberated from Assad regime control. They capture Douma’s transformation over four years of liberation, war, siege, and hunger. Surviving a chemical attack on neighbouring Ghouta and following the death of a friend, they revive an art project, painting graffiti on the devastated walls of the city. Recording 500 hours of footage, they confront questions of life and death, peaceful revolution and armed struggle, cameras and guns, and art in times of destruction. (WR)

This film is presented as part of the Focus Bidayyat : New Beginnings, presented in collaboration with World Records, and with the support of Critical Media Lab McGill and the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council.
The film's editor, Qutaiba Barhamji, will be offering a masterclass on November 20th, in the Fernand-Seguin theater of the Cinémathèque québécoise.

Still Recording