Ma’a al Fidda (Silvered Water, Syria Self-Portrait). 2014. Syria. Directed by Ossama Mohammed, Wiam Simav Bedirxan. 93 min.
Syrian director Ossama Mohammed, whose Stars in Broad Daylight (1988) and Sacrifices (2002) were banned by the Baathist government, was forced into exile after speaking out against the Assad regime at a 2011 Cannes Film Festival panel on the then-nascent Syrian civil war. From Paris, he began assembling online footage to bear witness to the terror inflicted by the Syrian regime, and to address the helplessness he felt in exile. Months later, Kurdish activist Wiam Simav Bedirxan reached out to Mohammed with the question, “If your camera were here in Homs, what you would be filming?” Silvered Water records their astonishing collaboration. Footage from Bedirxan’s smuggled camera shows the devastation of the city under siege, joining clips compiled by Mohammed showing images of torture, burned-out cities, and dead bodies, filmed by ordinary Syrians and the perpetrators alike. Mohammed and Bedirxan’s voiceover exchange, equal parts documentary record and elegy, is an unforgettable testament to human courage and dignity. Ultimately, as Nicholas Elliott puts it, “Silvered Water is more than a documentary about atrocity. It is that rare film that tries to encompass the world, leaping from birth to death in the space of an edit. Mournful music builds Silvered Water into a funeral march for Syria, but Syria is still being born. People like Bedirxan and Mohammed allow you to hope that the world is still being born.”