Syria - The Impossible Revolution

Three years in the making this feature length documentary offers unique insights into the roots of the Syrian Revolution and how what began as a peaceful uprising turned into a very brutal conflict as the Assad regime cracked down.

‘Syria - The Impossible Revolution,’ a film by Anne daly and Ronan Tynan, seeks to unravel the roots and ‘complexities’ of the bloodiest conflict in the Middle East as well as the politics of the Western response. It also examines why some elements on the Left are on the same page as the extreme Right defending the Assad regime against “US imperialism” apparently oblivious to the role of Iran and especially Russia and her indiscriminate bombing of civilians as well as targeting hospitals which many charge are warcrimes?

The film traces the roots of the Syrian revolution through the regime of Assad’s father up to the fall of Aleppo. Using extensive archive and interviews with a wide range of people directly involved as well as experts on the region, the documentary seeks to offer some understanding about a conflict that has plumbed new depths in terms of the toll it has extracted on civilians. Some suggest more than five hundred thousand are already dead, half the population have fled their homes and five millions are now refugees in Europe and neighbouring countries with little prospect of returning any time soon.

The film also examines the rise of the jihadis including Islamic State and Al Qaeda with evidence partly nurtured by Assad as he continues to present himself as "fighting the war on terror". Meanwhile, the violence has drawn in almost every major power, as well as all of the leading regional powers. But one thing is clear, civilians and ordinary Syrians seem to count for little or nothing in their calculations.

Paul Conroy, the legendary war photographers, described the documentary as “an incredible film on the history of the Syrian conflict’. Paul was wounded in Syria in 2012 when his colleague war correspondent Marie Colvin was killed in Baba-Amr, Homs by an Assad regime artillery barrage
targeted at their press centre. French photographer Remi Ohlick was also killed in the same attack.

‘Syria - The Impossible Revolution’ is an Esperanza Production and was directed by Ronan L Tynan and co-produced with Anne Daly.