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The documentary 'Surreal Syria,' screened Saturday in Bursa, features testimonies from people who left prisons run by the former Assad regime and their stories of rebuilding their lives.
The film is presented through the eyes of witnesses to what is described as Syria's rebirth from the ashes and the first year of its freedom.
Supported by the Bursa Volunteer Organizations Platform and Yildirim Municipality, the documentary produced by Tulay Gokcimen and directed by Dihat Kaya was shown at the Baris Mancho Cultural Center.
Attendees watched the 37-minute documentary, dedicated to the first anniversary of the Syrian revolution.
The film recounts years of torture up to the Syrian revolution, inhumane conditions in dark cells, and, after freedom, lives filled again with renewed hope.
Through interviews conveying the testimonies of detainees held in prisons, viewers at times could not hold back tears.
After the screening, members of the documentary team, Tulay Gokcimen and Dihat Kaya, shared what they experienced during filming, along with their testimonies and reflections.
Gokcimen said what was conveyed in the documentary does not represent even one percent of what the Syrian people lived through.
She said she has listened to many testimonies and has been trying to do work on Syrian soil since 2012, adding that watching the film still brings back what she experienced there: tents, mud, children, and the efforts made to make them smile.
She said the Syrian people endured what Gaza is experiencing today, referencing the killing of children in Eastern Ghouta by suffocation with sarin gas, and added that they were unable to truly convey what happened in Syria to the world.
She also noted that many people did not understand what happened in Syria, saying that after 14 years, some people watched the trailer and only then said the people must have suffered greatly.
Gokcimen said they do not distinguish between oppressed people, whether from Gaza, Palestine, Syria, Macedonia, or Sudan, and said they are preparing a new documentary about what happened in Gaza over two years of genocide.
She said they plan to travel country by country to show how children in Gaza were killed and to record it for history.
Director Dihat Kaya said they tried through the documentary to convey to people what Bashar Assad and the regime inflicted on the Syrian people.
Saying that 1 million people were martyred in Syria, Kaya said they would need a million films to understand or make sense of it, stressing the need to keep this memory alive because if these massacres are forgotten, they will be repeated.
Kaya said he was living in Gaziantep when the Assad regime fell on Dec. 8, 2024, and that he went out into the streets to celebrate that day with Syrians living in the same neighborhood.
He said he joined their march with his child while playing freedom songs, adding that although he did not know any of them, he witnessed their pain and felt he had to live that joy that day.
At the end of the event, Bursa Volunteer Organizations Platform President Murat Eryagan thanked those who contributed to the documentary.
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