Blowing in the Wind

It’s 2013, two years after the initially peaceful uprising that led to the Syrian civil war, and a group of citizen soldiers are advancing from their hometown of Saraqeb to Al-Tabqa Military Airport, Raqqa to fight Bashar al-Assad’s army.

In his 2018 film, The Greatest Sacrifice, director Eyad Aljarod showed how a group of Syrian friends became armed combatants following the events of 2011. In this behind-the-scenes documentary he takes a new angle on the same war. Here, Aljarod films a citizen militia on hazardous combat operations in the war zone and during the firing of rocket launchers.

But more often than the fighting itself, he captures the men in the moments in between: drinking tea around a fire, working out strategies, discussing logistical issues and kicking a ball around. They form a close brotherhood, despite occasional discord around their experiences of religious faith. Without interviews or commentary, Aljarod captures an insider’s view on the everyday mundanity of a war spanning many years. We may not see the victims of war, or even much violence, but the enduring tension, sadness and fighting spirit remain palpable.