R: Return to Homs (Talal Derki)
* Before watching this documentary film, Syrian Civil War was just a 'story' in the newspaper. I knew that there were people in suffering and have sympathy on them, feel sorry for them, but it is still so far away from my daily life. While today, I watched their daily life.
The film documented everyday lifes of Basset and Ossama. In their life, families, friends and also themsleves, may pass away at any time. The leader, Basset, was a football player before the Civil War start. At the very beginning, they were peaceful protester. With Civil War became worse and worse, their brothers and sisters died, their home became wasteland, their supplies were blocked. They buried their friends or sons, they returned to their house, stepped on the relics, they struggled in the wasteland.
In my perspective, their deep resistance to their homeland is somehow related to place and memory. As Chinese, from traditional poems and passages, the attachment to homeland is from blood nature. This nostalgia humanity seems applicable to every nations. There was the moment they reture to their home, which is totally ruined. They tried to find the left, and pointed out where was the sofa, where was their Canon camera. Even though everthing was ruined, they still regarded that place as home. Even though Homs is like a wasteland, they still memory it as homeland.
The place of memory also has relation with one's identity. When you meet someone for the first time, what will you say? What's your name? Where are you from? Those information are important for others to know you, and also important for you to get your identity. A place of memory can provide you with sense of belonging, and things happened in the place shape you into who you are. In the film, they gradually changed from peaceful protesters to rebel warriors. It is not that they want to be like that but they are forced to, they are shaped by the environment.
* People with AK 47 is not always bad. From this documentary, I see what they have gone through, their sufferings. Their gun shot for protect their homeland and families, rather than slaughter.
http://www.returntohoms.com/
