Documentary filmmaker Evgeny Afineevsky would like the audience for his new film, “Cries from Syria,” to keep in mind that chaos such as that seen in the embattled country is not just limited to the Middle East.
“People watching the movie need to stop taking for granted essential values that we believe in,” Mr. Afineevsky told The Washington Times, adding that such essentials as freedom of speech can be lost if people in the West are not careful. “We need to start to care more about our future.”
Mr. Afineevsky spent several years along the borderlands of Syria and Turkey and Iraq — a heated no man’s land where the Islamic State terror army has seized territory and publicly executed its enemies. American, Russian and Turkish bombing campaigns — in combination with Iraqi ground assaults — have aimed to upend the terror army’s hold on the countryside. Mr. Afineevsky’s film shows not only that fight, but also the human carnage in terms of Syria’s civilian population, hopelessly caught in the middle.
“They are seeking shelter,” the filmmaker said of Syria’s civilians, many of whom are seen in the film in tears beholding their homes destroyed by military operations. “They are dying in prisons from torture, dying in ISIS hands, dying under the shelling. But they want to go back to their homes.”
“I think … learning from this, we can help them.”
Immediately after completing his last film, “Winter on Fire,” which covered the Ukrainian unrest of 2013-14, Mr. Afineevsky was inspired to follow the stories of refugees all throughout Europe, including Syrians trying to escape that country’s brutal civil war.
“I realized that I need to go back to the Middle East and trace the Syrian revolution,” Mr. Afineevsky said. “The main characters … who became …victims and heroes.”
Filming in one of the world’s most dangerous hot spots presented a bevy of challenges, not the least of which was the security of the crew. However, the director felt this risk was worth it to tell the stories of the Syrian populace.
“I have the freedom and ability to go anywhere to meet these people [and] learn about them,” he said, “and later on tell it to the entire world.
“Some would say it’s the responsibility of the filmmakers to tell their stories.”
Mr. Afineevsky, who was born in Russia, believes that neither Moscow nor Washington has shown a “clear motivation” on why they are fighting the Islamic State in Syria.
“When our president talks about fighting ISIS and going side by side with Russia, I don’t think that his motivation is also clear in terms of fighting terrorism,” Mr. Afineevsky, now a U.S. citizen, said. “I think they don’t clearly see the whole picture of the Middle East — particularly Syria.”
Mr. Afineevsky said that, above all, he hopes that by shining a light on one of the world’s biggest conflict zones, his audience will learn to see Syrian refugees as fellow humans rather than simply “the other” derided by fear-mongering politicians.
“My main goal was to bring light and to bring knowledge … because the whole world fears these people,” he said of the refugees. “I wanted to tell the story of these people.
“I think this movie teaches us to love.”
“Cries From Syria” premieres on HBO Monday at 10 p.m. EST.
• Eric Althoff can be reached at twt@washingtontimes.com.
Please read our comment policy before commenting.