PUBLISHED October 18th, 2017 05:00 am | UPDATED July 25th, 2024 02:40 pm
Terrifying but so important; such is Matthew Heineman’s powerful new documentary about the rise of the Islamic State in the Syrian city of Raqqa during the Assad regime, and the remarkable group of brave men that formed the activist group called Raqqa is Being Slaughtered Silently. City of Ghosts, which opens the 10th edition of the annual Perspectives Film Festival this Friday, will be screened under the festival’s theme of ‘Rebels’, alongside works such as Ousmane Sembène’s Black Girl (1966) and Hong Kong director Wong Kar Wai’s Days of Being Wild (1990).
It is important to note that City of Ghosts is foremost bloody and horrifying, and trust me, there will be plenty of gore. There will be images of decapitations, of mock crucifixions, and graphic instances of death. But what it also is a story of math teachers, students, and sons that risk their lives to document the unreported hours committed by ISIS in their hometown with nothing but smartphones and laptops. The mundane Raqqa, I later learn, is significant in the fact that it was once the seat of the Muslim Empire’s most powerful caliph, Harun al-Rashid.
Raqqa is Being Slaughtered Silently, or RBSS, as they are known, demonstrates the power of citizen journalism and its ability to fight against even the most overwhelming of organised propaganda. Yet, it also reveals the sheer lengths extremists are willing to go for their religion, and the potential perils of citizen journalism – a fact that can be related to not just in City of Ghosts, but in our increasingly digital world. And indeed, wars are now not fought so much by bullets as they are words. The film explores ISIS’s propaganda methods, which includes Hollywood-style cinematic ‘movies’ and videos that glamourises and compares extremism to that of video games like Grand Theft Auto – a particularly effective method for recruiting disenfranchised teens. As RBSS puts it, “Children are ISIS’s firewood”, with the militant group shamelessly and ruthlessly groom toddlers and young children to become suicide bombers.
City of Ghosts tells its story best from the eyes of the activists, mostly recorded in Germany, where most people in the group are now taking refuge in fear of being assassinated. They are eloquent and instantly likeable. You remember that these are real emotions, pain, and fear that they are feeling, and it is a relief – if only for a brief moment – to watch them marvelling at modern technologies in Berlin and having the time of their lives in an impromptu snowball fight. These are the light-hearted moments that juxtapose with the ghastly secretly-recorded footage taken in Raqqa, and it is heart-wrenching for the viewer.
Their fight goes on, and you can only hope for the best. You will be shaken by the film, but it is one that you won’t forget, for it reminds us that true democracy in the world might never be an actual reality, only an idea.
City of Ghosts will open the Perspectives Film Festival 2017 on Friday, 20 October 2017, at Shaw Theatres Lido, 9pm. The film is rated M18 for Violence. Tickets are priced from $11, available here.