Response to film - Return to Homs (2014)
The Return to Homs is a 2013 Syrian-German documentary film written and directed by Talal Derki. This documentary follows a nineteen years old national football team goalkeeper, Abdul Baset Al-Sarout, and a twenty-four years old journalist, Ossama, who is Baset's friend. In this film, we can see that their homwtown, Homs, is changing from a more peaceful place into a ghost town which inhabitants can easily be attacked by bombs and gun shots.It also show how they changed from some peaceful protesters into some rebel insurgents, in order to fight for freedom.
It is so amazing that such a young boy turned into an iconic demonstration leader and a hero; however, it is also very sad that he can't enjoy a normal life at his age but to face such a cruel world. I think this film is really an incredible documentary because it can let people living in a different world like me know more about this city, a world that we always hear about it a lot, but never really got close to. For people who are living in a safe city like me, we could never imagine how it is like to be living in such a dangerous city like Homs. I think it was really thrilling when I was watching this film in the class because it is so real. Deaths in this film are real. They really died, not just acting like dead. It is horrible to think about that. I really can't imagine how it was like to watch my friends die in front of me. Sad.
In this film, the director really captured the intense atmosphere there. It took us to the place that we have never been to and to the time that we can never go back. However, I was not quite sure how the cameramen could avoid the shooting and bombing when filming. People were being shot all around the camera and it was really dangerous. It's for real that the cameraman could die if he was one step further and he did his job really well that he tried his best to film the whole situation in the city. Respect.
I think the key concept of this documentary is to show people raw footages, which means to show the real situation of Homs to people in other countries. The filmmaker let the world to know the truth about their hometown that nobody else in the world could ever do because others may not have that courage to do so in such a dangerous place. However, the filmmaker of this film was really brave to spread his message to world that there are many people in his city fighting for freedom. I think the fact that they lived through the war and they are able to show this film to us to watch deserves our respects.
In one shot in this film, Basset is crying in front of the camera and he said, “Kill me, but just open up an exit for the people.” At that stage, He was no longer fight for his own freedom only, he isfighting for the freedom of others too. For me, Basset is already a hero in my mind beacuse he is so brave and that he sacrificed his own life to fight for freedom. On the other hand, what I really appreciate Basset's friends is that they are really faithful to Basset because they are willing to fight with Basset. They could choose not coming back to Homs but they chose following Basset, so I really appreciate the friendship between Basset and his friends.