Best Syrian movies
A curated collection of popular movies from Syria.
The Dupes (1972)
The Dupes (1972)
The film follows three Palestinian refugees brought together by dispossession and hope for a better future. Hiding in the tank of a truck, the men attempt to make their way across the border into Kuwait, the "promised land." A masterful adaptation of Ghassan Kanafani's novel Men Under the Sun, The Dupes is also one of the first Arab films to address the Palestinian predicament.
Color (2023)
Color (2023)
Saeed is a young man sees his life in Black and White, but there is a few things can bring back the Colors to his life, and he wants to feel something through them.
Morning Star (2019)
Morning Star (2019)
The film sheds light on the kidnapping of Syrian women who were subjected to torture during the years of the Syrian civil war, and the suffering they had to endure along with their families.
Binxet - Under the border (2017)
Binxet - Under the border (2017)
“Binxet – Under the border” is a journey between life and death, dignity and pain, struggle and freedom. It takes place along the 911 km of the turkish-Syrian border. On the one hand the ISIS, in the other Erdogan’s Turkey. In the middle the borders and one hope. This hope is called Rojava, only one point on the chart of a troubled region, a region of resistance and an example of grassroots democracy that speaks about gender equality, self-determination of peoples and peaceful coexistence.
The Borders (1984)
The Borders (1984)
A traveler between two countries metaphorically named "Easternstan" and "Westernstan" loses his passport and identity papers. Stuck between the two countries he can neither cross the frontiers nor get back to where he came from. He's forced to camp in the neutral area between the two countries, facing a lot of funny situations while there. The movie satirizes the ideology of Arab unity and cooperation at the state level.
ID (2007)
ID (2007)
Based on the idea of reincarnation, the work tells the story of Ahed, a young man who works in the pottery industry and lives in a village in northern Palestine with his family, where he is haunted by obsessions and memories from another life in another place.
One Day in Aleppo (2017)
One Day in Aleppo (2017)
Suffocated by a cruel, inescapable siege imposed by the Syrian regime and after five months of incessant and senseless shelling, a group of children living in Aleppo start painting the walls of their city. It is an act of protest as well as resistance: a small act that dares to dream of bringing back life in a place that has been humiliated by bombs and bullets, while international powers were watching without doing anything to save lives. Thus, the colours sowed throughout the devastated city sprout small beacons of hope for the thousands of people trapped in Aleppo, smothered by the ruins and rubbles. So, while the Russian forces cut off supplies of food and medicine, more than 280,000 civilians languishing without a home or a shelter try to find new hope and reasons to go on. What happened in Aleppo will never be forgotten.
The End Will Be Spectacular (2019)
The End Will Be Spectacular (2019)
Zilan, a young woman, returns to her home town looking for traces of her dead brother, killed by ISIS. But her town is not what it used to be: social and political tensions have escalated into a state of war. The people have risen up to demand their political autonomy and the police and army repress them with brutal force. But the city’s resistance will go on for more than 100 days and Zilan will not remain a passive witness. Based on the diaries of those who died fighting and the testimony of survivors, who are the protagonists of the film, Çelik's first feature explores concepts such as hope, friendship, sacrifice and loss in the struggle for freedom of a group of young people.
Kobane (2022)
Kobane (2022)
Despite being outnumbered and outgunned, a female Kurdish fighter guides her fellow fighters in the resistance to defend their city, Kobanê, from the deadly threat of ISIS. A real story of war, sacrifice, love and hope that kept the whole world on tenterhooks.
The Night (1992)
The Night (1992)
In the destroyed city of Quneitra is the grave of a resistance fighter for Palestine. His son, the director, tries to restore the dead man's history by mixing echoes of his mother's memory and his desire to give his father a more honorable death. Through the daily lives, dreams, fears, and hopes of its citizens, Malas chronicles his hometown Quneitra in the Golan Heights between 1936, the year of the first revolts against the British and Zionists in Palestine until the year of the city's destruction. He seeks to exorcise a feeling of shame and humiliation that long accompanied the image of his father and also his town, occupied by Israelis in 1967.
The Extras (1993)
The Extras (1993)
Salem dreams of being an actor but is still working in a gas station, only his love for Nada can make things easier for him.
The War Show (2016)
The War Show (2016)
A Syrian radio DJ documents the experiences of herself and her friends as their dreams of overthrowing their elected government give way to the grim realities of sectarian death squads and extremism.
Damascus... Aleppo (2019)
Damascus... Aleppo (2019)
An introverted former broadcaster chooses to detach himself from the overwhelming situation his country is going through, but the news of his daughter getting besieged in Aleppo break through his shield. A portrayal of the fragile and voluntary detachment as a coping mechanism with war and trauma.
Karate girls (1981)
Karate girls (1981)
When her father dies and leaves her alone, a young and beautiful girl finds solace in dancing and playing karate. Her loneliness, however, tempts men to approach her, including her immoral cousin whom she rejects, but he wouldn’t take no for an answer.
Thief (2019)
Thief (2019)
The film tells the story of a robbery in which a girl suffers a conflict situation about the form of the victim that she wants to be, but in another context it is a form of contrast between past and future that highlights the effect of the act of theft
Under the Ceiling (2005)
Under the Ceiling (2005)
As far as one can remember, water has been dropping from this ceiling. One drop after another, slowly, like an ever-repeating dream that spreads all-over and changes the rhythm of life, creating a partition in-between the internal and the external. One camera for Nidal Debs, another for his hero Marwan, One camera shooting what the other sees. who makes the film?. Marwan lives in Damascus since a long time, since when refugees arrived and filled the city, since hardship was even harder. He & his friends lived those times when life was different, when dreams were bouncing in the streets. Something is happening today, the friends awaken as Ahmad passes away, a life-time of silence has passed, a life-time of frustration and loneliness must end, dreams are searching for a few minutes, for last moments, there is still a little time left. There is a new space today.
Once Again (2009)
Once Again (2009)
The film revolves around the subject of Syrian-Lebanese relations, starting from the period of the Syrian military presence in Lebanon, and up until after the Syrian army left, through a love story between a Lebanese woman who came to Damascus to work as a bank manager, and a young Syrian man who works as a communications manager there. The story between them begins with tension, but it quickly turns into a love story, although the tension between them does not completely disappear with falling in love, as the two characters are still living in the past.
Dungeon Halab (2016)
Dungeon Halab (2016)
Al-Qaeda (al-QIA) affiliated terrorist organizations such as al-Nusra and ISIS have laid siege to Aleppo City Prison. Syrian police and soldiers and more than 2,500 prisoners remained under siege for more than a year. Until May 22, 2014, when the Syrian Arab Army and Hezbollah broke the siege. This movie is about the legendary resistance of Syrian security forces and prisoners under siege.
Tomorrow We Meet (2015)
Tomorrow We Meet (2015)
Syrian social series highlights the bitter human reality of a group of displaced Syrians flee to Lebanon from the bloody events after the Syrian crisis.The series revolves around the various human models found in this small society.
Damascus with Love (2010)
Damascus with Love (2010)
A Jewish Syrian girl sets for departure from home city Damascus, but reverses her decision because her father discloses a secret that was kept for years. The secret being about a Lover who was thought to be dead. The girl reveals the mysteries of the past in search of another side of magical Damascus, hence falling in love with a Christian man who disappears in Lebanon’s civil war. She finds herself facing a difficult choice, but the city itself will keep the door of love and choices wide open to infinite possibilities.
Silina (2009)
Silina (2009)
مسرحية استعراضية غنائية مأخوذة عن قصه هالة والملك لفيروز. تحتفل مدينة سيلينا بعيد سنوي حيث يلبس الناس أقنعة, ويمثلون أدواراً في سهرة العيد.
Joseph's Journey (2022)
Joseph's Journey (2022)
During the war, lots of people left Syria towards land of refuge fearing death except Joseph and his company. Meanwhile, his grandchild, Ziyad’s dreams grew but strayed. Together, they head towards a new country and distorted identity.
Roza – The Country Of Two Rivers (2016)
Roza – The Country Of Two Rivers (2016)
The documentary is telling the Rojava Revolution, with stories of Assyrian, Kurdish, Arabic people. This people are subjected to the ISIS attacks, on the other hand they are trying to build a communal system like democratic autonomy. This struggle is not easy in a region like Syria, where the war continues and showing the effects on people’s life.
Step by Step (1978)
Step by Step (1978)
In a rolling area of Syria, the villagers live their everyday life, in toil and poverty. Trapped between the hardships of farming, religious and political ideologies, they barely survive. Their children are the only ones that are still full of hope. They imagine their future lives and picture themselves as doctors or engineers. But these are pipe dreams. All they can actually look forward to is farming the land with primitive tools like their parents, getting a menial job in the city or becoming brainwashed soldiers..
Stars in Broad Daylight (1988)
Stars in Broad Daylight (1988)
In his debut feature film, director Muhammad explores the inexorable dissolution of a family, ironically during the planning of a wedding, the kind of ritual that ought to bond family members together in shared joy. The film exposes the divisive dynamics of patriarchal oppression, and the terrible connections between familial and sociopolitical violence.
Dreams of the City (1984)
Dreams of the City (1984)
Dib moves with his younger brother and their mother from his home town of Quneitra to Damascus after the death of his father. The children’s grandfather, who was known for his tyranny, reluctantly agrees to shelter the grieving family, and tries to force his daughter to marry again. The magic of the city of Damascus takes over the conscience. Dib, whose main concern has become discovering all the secrets of this city, is driven by his heart full of dreams, but he sees nothing in his life except humiliation and cruelty. The fragrance of childhood dies in Dib's heart, as he grows up in light of the political fluctuations that prevailed in the fifties (the end of the military dictatorship in Syria at that time, the nationalization of the Suez Canal, Nasser’s rise to power in Cairo, and Egyptian-Syrian unity in 1958), so that his rosy childhood dreams were shattered on the rocks of cruelty and violence. The city's dreams turn into a nightmare..
Everyday Life in a Syrian Village (1974)
Everyday Life in a Syrian Village (1974)
The first documentary to present an unabashed critique of the impact of the Syrian government’s agricultural and land reforms, Everyday Life in a Syrian Village delivers a powerful jab at the state’s conceit of redressing social and economic inequities.
Looking For Juliet (2020)
Looking For Juliet (2020)
In a context of suspense, events take place during the filming of a movie, where the main actor is found murdered, and when the investigator is called and finds in front of him three confessions of his killing, he must search for the real killer.
My Memory Is Full of Ghosts (2024)
My Memory Is Full of Ghosts (2024)
Like a visual elegy, My Memory Is Full of Ghosts explores a reality caught between past, present and future in Homs, Syria. Behind the self-portrait of an exsanguinated population in search of normality emerge memories of the city, haunted by destruction, disfigurement and loss. A deeply moving film, a painful echo of the absurdity of war and the strength of human beings.