NYFF52 Day 13: Resistance on the Down Low in 'Silvered Water, Syria Self-Portrait'

A bombed-out neighborhood in Syria, courtesy of the Assad government. Photo courtesy of the New York Film Festival.

HEADS UP: Picking up where we left off last year, but expanding a tad (OK, quite a bit but still pithy), we will limit comments about New York Film Festival films to no more than 200. And ... Lights. Camera. ACTION! ...

THE horrors of war – captured surreptitiously.

That, in essence, is what goes down in “Silvered Water, Syria Self-Portrait.” In a country where civil war has been raging since the crackdown on protesters during the Arab Spring uprisings in 2011, secret cameras capture the human and animal atrocities in defense of the administration of Syrian president Bashar Hafez al-Assad.


The documentary has its only U.S. premiere screening this evening at “The 52nd New York Film Festival. (See video below).

Exiled director Ossama Mohammed relies on the people on the scene to bring the indignities to light. However, this citizen journalism reaches a whole new level when Wiam Simav Bedirxan adds her camera to the conversation, earning her a co-director credit. Do note that this footage was shot before Isis became a household name in Syria.

The lens is unforgiving as it captures torture, indiscriminate bombing, displacement and the collateral damage wrought by a regime that appears to rule with an iron will.

“Silvered Water, Syria Self-Portrait” is a moving, powerful testament to the will of the oppressed to resist by any means at their disposal, including technology.

Visit http://www.filmlinc.com/nyff2014 to learn more about The 52nd New York Film Festival, including tickets and showtimes.