Birds of War Film Weaves Love Story From Aleppo Footage
SkimNews Take
Thirteen years of war preserved through voice notes and selfies — not dispatches — suggests prolonged conflicts now enter cultural memory via civilians' personal archives, sidelining traditional war journalism as the primary historical record.
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- Birds of War, co-directed by Lebanese-BBC journalist Janay Boulos and Syrian videographer Abd Alkader Habak, premieres in UK cinemas this week after winning the special jury award for journalistic impact at Sundance and prizes at Thessaloniki, Seattle, and Visions du Réel.
- Abd Alkader Habak fled Syria across the Turkish border with smugglers' aid shortly after a 2017 convoy bombing in Aleppo, eventually joining Boulos in London; the pair then founded Habak Films after Boulos quit the BBC.
- The film is constructed entirely from 13 years of archive footage, voice notes, selfies, video calls, and text messages, including the moment Habak's plea to Boulos — "Get away from there, run" — shifted their relationship from colleagues to romantic partners.
- Birds of War deliberately avoids graphic violence and the sound of explosions; Habak and psychotherapist Rebecca Day developed a "traffic light system" labeling archive footage green, orange, or red for distress level, with Day arguing such reflective practice should become industry standard for filmmakers working with traumatic material.
- The documentary frames itself as a portrait of what it means to be Syrian or Lebanese amid regional upheaval, with Boulos citing the Israel-Hezbollah war as a current driver of guilt and powerlessness for diaspora journalists.
- The film concludes with Habak's unexpected return home after the Syrian opposition drove Bashar al-Assad from power in a surprise late-2024 offensive, though Boulos and Habak note Syria and Lebanon's futures remain deeply uncertain.
Why it matters: Beyond the love story, Birds of War foregrounds the underdiscussed emotional toll on filmmakers handling traumatic material: co-director Abd Alkader Habak developed a "traffic light system" with psychotherapist Rebecca Day for classifying graphic archive footage, with Day arguing such reflective practice should become industry standard. For Western audiences, the film also offers an intimate, first-person counterweight to abstraction in mainstream coverage of Syria and Lebanon.
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