Quartile rating: 7/10 · 1 rating
Filmed over 3 years in Homs, accompanying 2 outstanding young men from the time they were only dreaming of freedom to the time when they are forced to change course. Basset, the 19yo national football team goalkeeper, who became an outspoken demonstration leader in the city, then an icon revolution singer, till he becomes a fighter... a militia leader. Ossama, his 24yo friend, renowned citizen journalist, cynical pacifist... as his views are forced to change, until he is detained by army secret service. It is the story of a city, of which the world have heard a lot, but never really got closer than news, never really had the chance to experience how a war erupted. a modern times epic of youth in war time.
Return to Homs is a remarkable piece of embedded documentary filmmaking. Its cinematography earns a 4 for the sheer courage and intimacy of the footage — director Talal Derki was physically inside a besieged city documenting a revolution collapsing into civil war, producing visceral, ground-level imagery rarely captured. Novelty is also high: the film's sustained, years-long personal access to two specific individuals — a goalkeeper-turned-fighter and a pacifist journalist — gives the Syrian conflict a human architecture that distinguishes it sharply from news coverage or typical war docs. The plotting is essentially chronological and observational, following events as they unfold rather than constructing a dramatic architecture, which limits its score to a 3. Acting is not applicable in the traditional sense, but the naturalism and authenticity of the subjects' presence reads as above average. The ending, arriving with exhaustion and unresolved tragedy rather than catharsis, is honest but emotionally incomplete, landing at a 3.