Trailer for In Syria, also known as Insyriated. Foreign drama screened at the Melbourne International Film Festival.
An urgent, timely experience in view of the current trauma affecting Syria, this tense thriller stars the great Hiam Abbass as Oum Yazan, a staunch matriarch trying to hold together her Damascus apartment under attack from the bombs, gunfire and domestic intruders outside.
Set almost entirely in the shell-shocked apartment, the second feature from accomplished cinematographer turned director Philippe Van Leeuw puts the audience in the harrowing predicament of Yazan's charges (her housemaid, father-in-law, young son, two daughters, their teenage friend, and a young couple with a baby) as they attempt to survive unimaginable violence raging across the city.