In Syria

One day in an apartment in a besieged city in Syria. Oum Yazan has turned her home into a fortress. She keeps her children, her elderly father-in-law, the family maid and a young neighbouring couple with their baby behind locked doors, while bombs fall and snipers watch the street. Her husband went out and has not come back. Then, early in the morning, the young husband is shot in the courtyard. The maid sees it. Oum Yazan decides that his wife must not be told, not yet, to keep everyone safe.

Philippe Van Leeuw never leaves the apartment, and that is the film's power. We hear the war more than we see it: explosions, shots, footsteps on the stairs. Inside, life goes on in a frightening suspension. Hiam Abbass is magnificent as Oum Yazan, a woman who must be hard to protect her family, and who makes choices that are both brave and terrible. Diamand Bou Abboud as the young wife is heartbreaking.

It is not an easy film. There is a scene in the middle that is very hard to watch. But it is one of the most honest films about what war means for those who cannot escape it: not battles, but hours of waiting, fear, and impossible decisions. It won the Audience Award in the Panorama at Berlin. Claustrophobic, tense, essential.