Day 53 City of Ghosts [2017 Documentary]
Director Matthew
Heineman
Cinematography Matthew
Heineman
Music Composition Jackson
Greenberg & H. Scott Salinas
Subject Syrian media activist
group ‘Raqqa is being Slaughtered Silently’
Production Our
Time Projects
IMDb 7.5/10
Rotten Tomatoes 99%
The opening credits gave me goose bumps. Heineman
shoots the group he is following at a press awards ceremony, and the
juxtaposition between the camera flashes, lavish dinner and well-dressed
couples of the ceremony, and the grim reality of the group’s lives, is already
clear. You can see it in their faces, especially the face of the group’s
introverted cameraman Hamoud, who refuses to smile for pictures. Heineman
follows a group of young Syrian men from the city of Raqqa, which at one point
was one of the main strongholds of the Islamic State (ISIS, ISIL) in Syria.
These men set up a media campaign called ‘Raqqa is being slaughtered silently’
(RBSS) in response to ISIS’s control of their city and they became a thorn in
the side of the fundamentalist’s aim to turn Raqqa into a caliphate. It’s perhaps
the most brutal documentary I have ever watched, with multiple vivid ISIS torture
and murder videos shown in all their gore. These are by far the most shocking
moments of the documentary, often filmed in Hollywood quality by the ISIS media
(so fucked up). The RBSS founders are eventually forced to leave Syria as ISIS
go after them, their friends, family and anyone associated with them. There is
a poignant moment when we see Hamoud watching an ISIS video of his father being
murdered, as a threat to him and the other members of RBSS, and yet he
continues to work tirelessly against them. This documentary is a duel between
RBSS and ISIS, and by that I mean there is no in-depth mention of any of the other
players in Syria. Of course, the Assad regime is mentioned as the revolution
gave ISIS the opportunity to swoop in and take Raqqa, but really Heineman
focuses on the smaller picture. The viewer is drawn in to the constant battle
between the brave RBSS members and ISIS, which leaves us to ponder over the
bigger picture. It’s an emotional look at one small group’s brave actions in
the face of terror. A small media battle over the forgotten city of Raqqa, in the
middle of a much larger war. I read, since watching the film, that 80% of Raqqa
is now uninhabitable – nearly an entire city destroyed, and yet I heard about
it for the first time in this film. It doesn’t tell you much about problems in
Syria elsewhere, but it doesn’t need to, it is a case study that hints at the
wider story and you’ve got to watch it.
Subject Matter 4
/ 4
Shock Factor 4
/ 4
Production 3.5
/ 4
Music 2
/ 4
HWF rating 4 / 4