“Bleeding Heart”, Documentary shows Syria's childhood suffering

“Bleeding Heart” a short documentary film produced by the Specialised Media Centre in Homs neighborhoods Union. The film tells stories and sufferings of many children in besieged Homs. Sama Homs, a media activist and her friend Nidal Khattab, a camera man filmed and directed the documentary, but Nidal was killed before finishing it. In her talk to Zaman Alwasl, Sama explained that the idea of the film started a year ago, which aimed to capture details of children’s lives in Homs. However the security and instable conditions in besieged Homs puzzled them over the place of filming, till their friend, Kinan,who was arrested later, told them about a basement, where dozens of children live in. Sama talked in pain about Nidal, she said he was known as “the compassionate” and he completed the film just two days before getting arrested and killed under torture.“ He wanted to broadcast the film on many TV channels, and I was very happy with that, but when he was arrested, the completed version got lost, maybe it was on his laptop that was taken away at prison”. Then she explained that they luckily managed to find an unfinished copy of the film, which was completed by young men in the Union. Sama said happily that the documentary film was broadcasted on “Syria Alshaab TV channel, and was supposed to be shown on other TV channels, but problem with internet prevented that. Sama went on telling Zaman Alwasl some painful stories and moments about children during filming, the most memorable incident was when they were filming a girl wearing her new clothes, and when she said that she wanted to stay in those clothes, because she wanted to die in them if death came. Sama said that Nidal, the compassionate, was touched a lot, his hands shacked and could not carry on filming and said with tears in his eyes: “I do not want to film, I want to help these children, but I do not know how... my heart is broken” Sama mentioned that they pictured many kids, but they could not present them in the film for technical and security issue. She urged ever one to do his or her best to help children, as they have not done any wrong to get punished in this way. The activist explained that filming conditions were very difficult and they were at the brink of getting arrested because the regime security forces raided the basement and threatened people there, but luckily they were not in at the time. When the media activist was asked about the reason behind the name of the documentary, she said: “Bleeding heart is a kind of flower prefers shadow, it is very beautiful as the flower takes a heart shape, and when it is cut, it produces a very poisonous fluid, so she resembled those children with Bleeding Heart beautiful flower, who might turned into criminal or bad people if they were left without care. Sama Homs describe the miserable living conditions for people in the basement, as it was nothing more than rows of blocks separating rooms allocated to each family from each other , while kitchen and bathroom were shared. She added that kids lives there was very bad, were their clothes are worn out and do not have enough food or medicine for the ill ones. Sama Homs wished to repeat that exceptional experience in doing the “bleeding heart documentary, but she feels helpless after Nidal’s death, and she had to leave the country. She wishes she could make films about kids and psychological effects of war on them, besides films about disabled and abducted people or absentees, and their parents’ sufferings. In the end she stressed that Syrian revolution started for dignity and freedom and respected life, and she sees that revolution is the life and she is interested the most in children as they have no guilt in all what have been happening and as they are paying for all that from their lives, security and stability.

Reporting by Faris al-Refaei; Translation by Yusra Ahmed