Civilian families remaining inside the besieged districts of Homs
continue to cling on to life in between the jaws of death and hunger.
They continue to live while their disctricts are being hammered daily by missiles,
leaving them surrounded with rubble, the memories and dreams.
The way these families stand tall is just like the ancient stones of Homs:
surviving, full of life, despite the daily agony and misery.
Scenes and slogans carved by the living and the martyrs are still seen
on the walls and houses that remain standing.
Vibrant and clear these images are, insisting that we keep an eye on them,
that we look for them in all this destruction.
Sandbags, barricades, soldiers armed to their teeth, bullet coats, bombs ...
These factors simply make up the checkpoints of the regime's army, cutting off each district from the other
and imposing the suffocating siege of Homsi families as they draw images of fear and terror.
These checkpoints are made to exterminate safety and security,
they're made to spread fear, to terrorize, to torture, to arrest and to kill.
On these checkpoints, fear spreads and freedom is stolen. It is where death is practised.
The name of your district will be the one they hate, your family name will be similar to one of the
names on the wanted lists composed by the forces at these checkpoints, depending on their mood.
Entire districts are under siege by Assad's soldiers, shabiha and thugs.
The thugs will terrorize civilians as they pass in between these districts
and impose diverse means of anguish.
The Gardenia Tower or, as the residents of Homs call it, the "Death Tower".
It overlooks most of the districts, as it is located where Al-Hamra and Al-Ghouta meet.
Though its weapons are stationed on staggeringly high levels, the tower plants death
and fires destruction onto the besieged districts.
The Death Tower sniper has claimed the lives of hundreds of innocent souls.
You only need to pass by this ruthless sniper to look death in the eye.
Eyewitness testimony: "The sounds of the tower's weapons have become so normal to the ears of the
families of Homs. The machine guns stationed overlooking pose a threat and constant fear
amongst them as the smell of death dominates all. These districts have lost many of their civilians
to the tower and those stationed in it."
Artillery, buildings fall apart, carrying with them dreams and a future that could have been.
This is the situation inside besieged Homs day and night. Civilians spend their evenings
listening to the sounds of missiles and tanks moving by, then wake up to the smell of smoke,
scenes of fires rising to the skies and bullets abducting several souls.
It isn't something odd to wake up and find your home now in rubble, your neighborhood destroyed,
your children hanging between life and death. It isn't strange to forget the sounds of birds
because these have been substituted with anti-aircrafts, Shilka tanks and T-72s,
where they all keep roaring from the early hours of the morning till late at night.
The sounds that now have become a part of their lives and dreams.
In the middle of the siege, there are people, holding on to the soil and walls with all their might.
They're hanging their dreams inside because they believe that surviving
this oppressive situation will give birth to the longer way to victory.
They live through the sounds of artillery and strive through the day, hungry and tired,
with victory at sight where they will continue to live.
They gave their dreams, hopes and wishes to these besieged neighborhoods
because they're not giving up, they're standing tall.
Nothing can bring a smile to the face within the siege except children.
Their childhood is now made of shelling. They don't dream of quiet days or peaceful mornings with birds,
with a Jasmin smell coming through.
They don't even dream of a cup of milk, which most children take for granted.
All they dream of is to find a space within all this destruction, free of rubble, free of blood,
a place for them to play football, their handmade football, made of the remainders of bullets and explosives.
Church bells ring through the streets, as the call to prayer is made from mosques
with the words "God is great" that come through the alleys. Everyone moves their way to pray,
either in a church or in a mosque. God is one. The prayer is one. Victory against the oppressor
is the shared prayer between all. It is all they repeat all the time, in the prayers they keep in their hearts.
It is inside these besieged neighborhoods of Homs that you learn the true meaning of surviving
between the jaws of death and mass destruction.
Their day starts with the sounds of deafening shelling and the rumble of tanks.
With their lenses at hand, they befriend the lonely alleys,
documenting destruction and death lurking in every corner.
They fear no bullets, they challenge every shell, they don't spare a look to the sniper waiting for their
shadows at the end of each road to take their life that has no more worth to him but a candle.
The truth is what they're after, the truth is what they gave their lives and future for,
the truth and the pictures of suffering, grievery and hope.
"Homs between two sieges" features minutes into the daily life of the families of Homs
and their suffering under the long-term suffocating siege.
It's a short film that portraits their agony and documents memorial revolutionary moments
in the city of Homs, the "city of the revolution".
Filmed and directed by the "Lens of a young Homsi" team.