Syria-The Impossible Revolution – TRAILER from Esperanza Productions on Vimeo.

The world turning away from Syria as if people do not want to know – my abiding impression after three years working on the documentary ‘Syria – The Impossible Revolution’. Why such indifference to egregious violence and horrific suffering inflicted on civilians including children? Normally the world starts to pay attention when the death toll mounts but over five hundred thousand have already been killed in Syria and it does not seem to make any difference? Indeed, in the seventh year since the Assad regime brutally crushed a mass peaceful uprising in 2011 the regime and its allies are still bombing hospitals in Idlib. Not only are these warcrimes being ignored they are not even making news anymore!

Making a film of any kind about the conflict in Syria means showing egregious violence against civilians. But how do you do that without making it impossible to watch even by hardened veteran? Marc Nelson the artist solved that problem for us when I approached him after seeing how powerful his drawing are on Twitter. Of course we had to plough through hours of archive video, including footage of so many extremely violent atrocities of all kinds making this documentary. However, Marc’s drawings convey the horror and the crimes, but in not forcing the viewer to turn away he also leaves room for outrage!

Many have already commented very positively to us about the drawings we used are in the trailer. Obviously in a feature length documentary that focuses on the Syrian Revolution and the conflict that developed in Syria when the peaceful uprising was brutally crushed must use considerable video archive. But in telling that story when people are already turning away we wanted to make it possible for anyone to watch without switching off. “The power of art” may have been turned into a cliche in some quarters but as some have already told us the drawings helped draw them into the story where graphic violent video footage might have turned them away!

Thanks Marc!

Ronan L Tynan
Director and Co-Producer
‘Syria – The Impossible Revolution’

A feature length documentary made by Esperanza Productions ‘Syria-The Impossible Revolution’ will premiere in London on October 18 in the Hong Koing Theatre at 6.30pm in the London School of Economics. The film with be formally launched by photographer Paul Conroy who was wounded when his colleague war correspondent Marie Colvin was killed when the Assad regime targeted their press centre in Homs, Syria in 2012.

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BACKGROUND:

‘Syria – The Impossible Revolution’

Three years in the making this feature length documentary offers unique insights into the roots of the Syrian Revolution and how what began as a peaceful uprising turned into a very brutal conflict as the Assad regime cracked down.

‘Syria – The Impossible Revolution,’ a film by Anne daly and Ronan Tynan, seeks to unravel the roots and ‘complexities’ of the bloodiest conflict in the Middle East as well as the politics of the Western response. It also examines why some elements on the Left are on the same page as the extreme Right defending the Assad regime against “US imperialism” apparently oblivious to the role of Iran and especially Russia and her indiscriminate bombing of civilians as well as hospitals which many charge are warcrimes?

The film traces the roots of the Syrian revolution through the regime of Assad’s father up to the fall of Aleppo. Using extensive archive and interviews with a wide range of people directly involved as well as experts on the region, the documentary seeks to offer some understanding about a conflict that has plumbed new depths in terms of the toll it has extracted on civilians. Some suggest more than five hundred thousand are already dead, half the population have fled their homes and five millions are now refugees in Europe and neighbouring countries with little prospect of returning any time soon.

‘Syria – The Impossible Revolution’ was made by Esperanza Productions co founded by award winning filmmakers Anne Daly and Ronan L Tynan.

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