WEBVTT 00:00:27.630 --> 00:00:30.904 Civilian families remaining inside the besieged districts of Homs 00:00:30.904 --> 00:00:34.977 continue to cling on to life in between the jaws of death and hunger. 00:00:34.977 --> 00:00:39.266 They continue to live while their disctricts are being hammered daily by missiles, 00:00:39.266 --> 00:00:43.780 leaving them surrounded with rubble, the memories and dreams. 00:00:43.780 --> 00:00:47.333 The way these families stand tall is just like the ancient stones of Homs: 00:00:47.333 --> 00:00:53.455 surviving, full of life, despite the daily agony and misery. 00:00:53.455 --> 00:00:57.426 Scenes and slogans carved by the living and the martyrs are still seen 00:00:57.426 --> 00:01:00.031 on the walls and houses that remain standing. 00:01:00.031 --> 00:01:04.798 Vibrant and clear these images are, insisting that we keep an eye on them, 00:01:04.798 --> 00:01:09.313 that we look for them in all this destruction. 00:01:16.774 --> 00:01:23.604 Sandbags, barricades, soldiers armed to their teeth, bullet coats, bombs ... 00:01:23.604 --> 00:01:28.934 These factors simply make up the checkpoints of the regime's army, cutting off each district from the other 00:01:28.934 --> 00:01:34.542 and imposing the suffocating siege of Homsi families as they draw images of fear and terror. 00:01:34.542 --> 00:01:37.966 These checkpoints are made to exterminate safety and security, 00:01:37.966 --> 00:01:48.345 they're made to spread fear, to terrorize, to torture, to arrest and to kill. 00:01:48.345 --> 00:01:54.447 On these checkpoints, fear spreads and freedom is stolen. It is where death is practised. 00:01:54.447 --> 00:02:00.326 The name of your district will be the one they hate, your family name will be similar to one of the 00:02:00.326 --> 00:02:06.108 names on the wanted lists composed by the forces at these checkpoints, depending on their mood. 00:02:06.108 --> 00:02:10.905 Entire districts are under siege by Assad's soldiers, shabiha and thugs. 00:02:10.905 --> 00:02:14.968 The thugs will terrorize civilians as they pass in between these districts 00:02:14.968 --> 00:02:19.554 and impose diverse means of anguish. 00:02:24.600 --> 00:02:29.516 The Gardenia Tower or, as the residents of Homs call it, the "Death Tower". 00:02:29.516 --> 00:02:36.525 It overlooks most of the districts, as it is located where Al-Hamra and Al-Ghouta meet. 00:02:37.664 --> 00:02:42.099 Though its weapons are stationed on staggeringly high levels, the tower plants death 00:02:42.099 --> 00:02:45.736 and fires destruction onto the besieged districts. 00:02:45.736 --> 00:02:49.914 The Death Tower sniper has claimed the lives of hundreds of innocent souls. 00:02:49.914 --> 00:02:56.862 You only need to pass by this ruthless sniper to look death in the eye. 00:03:01.431 --> 00:03:06.608 Eyewitness testimony: "The sounds of the tower's weapons have become so normal to the ears of the 00:03:06.608 --> 00:03:12.672 families of Homs. The machine guns stationed overlooking pose a threat and constant fear 00:03:12.672 --> 00:03:18.812 amongst them as the smell of death dominates all. These districts have lost many of their civilians 00:03:18.812 --> 00:03:23.349 to the tower and those stationed in it." 00:03:57.414 --> 00:04:03.624 Artillery, buildings fall apart, carrying with them dreams and a future that could have been. 00:04:03.624 --> 00:04:09.395 This is the situation inside besieged Homs day and night. Civilians spend their evenings 00:04:09.395 --> 00:04:15.337 listening to the sounds of missiles and tanks moving by, then wake up to the smell of smoke, 00:04:15.337 --> 00:04:22.560 scenes of fires rising to the skies and bullets abducting several souls. 00:04:31.789 --> 00:04:37.382 It isn't something odd to wake up and find your home now in rubble, your neighborhood destroyed, 00:04:37.382 --> 00:04:44.358 your children hanging between life and death. It isn't strange to forget the sounds of birds 00:04:44.358 --> 00:04:50.293 because these have been substituted with anti-aircrafts, Shilka tanks and T-72s, 00:04:50.293 --> 00:04:55.308 where they all keep roaring from the early hours of the morning till late at night. 00:04:55.308 --> 00:04:58.907 The sounds that now have become a part of their lives and dreams. 00:04:58.907 --> 00:05:04.230 In the middle of the siege, there are people, holding on to the soil and walls with all their might. 00:05:04.230 --> 00:05:06.989 They're hanging their dreams inside because they believe that surviving 00:05:06.989 --> 00:05:10.789 this oppressive situation will give birth to the longer way to victory. 00:05:15.836 --> 00:05:20.504 They live through the sounds of artillery and strive through the day, hungry and tired, 00:05:20.504 --> 00:05:25.020 with victory at sight where they will continue to live. 00:05:25.020 --> 00:05:29.869 They gave their dreams, hopes and wishes to these besieged neighborhoods 00:05:29.869 --> 00:05:33.207 because they're not giving up, they're standing tall. 00:05:40.039 --> 00:05:44.653 Nothing can bring a smile to the face within the siege except children. 00:05:44.653 --> 00:05:51.421 Their childhood is now made of shelling. They don't dream of quiet days or peaceful mornings with birds, 00:05:51.421 --> 00:05:54.402 with a Jasmin smell coming through. 00:05:54.402 --> 00:05:59.363 They don't even dream of a cup of milk, which most children take for granted. 00:05:59.363 --> 00:06:09.196 All they dream of is to find a space within all this destruction, free of rubble, free of blood, 00:06:09.196 --> 00:06:19.338 a place for them to play football, their handmade football, made of the remainders of bullets and explosives. 00:06:42.217 --> 00:06:46.589 Church bells ring through the streets, as the call to prayer is made from mosques 00:06:46.589 --> 00:06:52.513 with the words "God is great" that come through the alleys. Everyone moves their way to pray, 00:06:52.513 --> 00:07:01.930 either in a church or in a mosque. God is one. The prayer is one. Victory against the oppressor 00:07:01.930 --> 00:07:11.075 is the shared prayer between all. It is all they repeat all the time, in the prayers they keep in their hearts. 00:08:16.940 --> 00:08:22.421 It is inside these besieged neighborhoods of Homs that you learn the true meaning of surviving 00:08:22.421 --> 00:08:27.568 between the jaws of death and mass destruction. 00:08:43.539 --> 00:08:48.129 Their day starts with the sounds of deafening shelling and the rumble of tanks. 00:08:48.129 --> 00:08:51.351 With their lenses at hand, they befriend the lonely alleys, 00:08:51.351 --> 00:08:57.252 documenting destruction and death lurking in every corner. 00:09:40.444 --> 00:09:46.792 They fear no bullets, they challenge every shell, they don't spare a look to the sniper waiting for their 00:09:46.792 --> 00:09:53.898 shadows at the end of each road to take their life that has no more worth to him but a candle. 00:09:53.898 --> 00:10:00.540 The truth is what they're after, the truth is what they gave their lives and future for, 00:10:00.540 --> 00:10:07.238 the truth and the pictures of suffering, grievery and hope. 00:12:27.060 --> 00:12:32.296 "Homs between two sieges" features minutes into the daily life of the families of Homs 00:12:32.296 --> 00:12:35.955 and their suffering under the long-term suffocating siege. 00:12:35.955 --> 00:12:41.001 It's a short film that portraits their agony and documents memorial revolutionary moments 00:12:41.001 --> 00:12:44.951 in the city of Homs, the "city of the revolution". 00:12:44.951 --> 00:12:51.120 Filmed and directed by the "Lens of a young Homsi" team.