It’s a recurring nightmare doubtless shared by many Syrians who fled their homeland through the conflict – a mirage of house and hope, slipping away.
Directed by Yazan Rabee, BACK is a brief documentary that follows those that return of their sleep to ghostly hometowns, hunted down by menacing forces.
Mixing intimate testimony with hanging visuals, BACK explores how political violence turns into embedded within the unconscious, particularly for individuals who lengthy for house from life in exile.
However as Rabee asks, did the nightmare actually start in 2012, with the rebellion towards president Bashar al-Assad? Or did the trauma take root many years earlier, through the brutal reign of Bashar’s father?
Printed On 18 Jun 2025
