Middleast

Syrian director Ossama Mohammed had been in political exile in Paris for eight months when, around Christmas 2011, he received a message through his Facebook account from a young Kurdish activist in Homs. Trapped under heavy shelling and aerial bombardment, she asked him: "If your camera were here, in Homs, what would you be filming?" The activist's name was Simav, Kurdish for "silvered water," and this encounter yielded a remarkable artistic collaboration, the product of which was widely hailed as a masterpiece after its premiere at this Cannes Film Festival. Over two years, Mohammed filmed in Paris and distilled stories from thousands of videos posted by Syrians online, as well as from the footage that Simav herself was shooting in Homs. Under siege, Simav's camera became her salvation, while her astounding steadfastness and courage became to Mohammed a metaphor for a new Syria being born from the devastation of war.