10 Best Syrian Movies to Watch First

10 Essential Syrian Films

Ranked native cinema in Syria’s own creative voice.

1. 

   1. For Sama

   2019

   Framed as a mother's video letter to her infant daughter, this searing documentary chronicles five years of the uprising and siege in Aleppo, as a young woman falls in love, marries, and gives birth amid relentless bombardment. A devastating, Oscar-nominated firsthand record.

2. 

   2. Last Men in Aleppo

   De sidste mænd i Aleppo · 2017

   This unflinching documentary follows the volunteer rescuers of the White Helmets as they dig survivors from the rubble of bombed-out Aleppo, torn between the urge to flee and the duty to stay. A harrowing, intimate portrait of courage under fire.

3. 

   3. Qamaran wa Zaytouna

   قمران وزيتونة · 2001

   In a Syrian village, a troubled child and his family cope with the father's paralysis from a war injury, in a tender drama of everyday hardship and love. A poetic Syrian film.

4. 

   4. Everyday Life in a Syrian Village

   الحياة اليومية في قرية سورية · 1975

   This groundbreaking documentary offers an unvarnished critique of the Syrian government's much-touted land and agricultural reforms, exposing the gap between official promises and the reality of villagers' lives. A landmark of Arab political cinema.

5. 

   5. Dreams of the City

   أحلام المدينة · 1984

   After his father's death, a boy moves with his mother and brother to 1950s Damascus to live under the roof of a tyrannical grandfather, coming of age amid political turmoil and family strife. Mohammad Malas's poetic, autobiographical drama.

6. 

   6. The Dream

   المنام · 1987

   This documentary gathers the hopes and testimonies of Palestinians living in Lebanon's refugee camps, some filmed in Sabra and Shatila shortly before the massacre. A haunting record of longing and displacement.

7. 

   7. The Jar: A Tale From the East

   الجرة حكاية من الشرق · 2001

   Drawn from a story told for over a millennium, this fable set in a Middle Eastern village dramatizes an age-old struggle between good and evil and the values that hold a family together. A moral folk tale.

8. 

   8. Taste of Cement

   طعم الإسمنت · 2017

   Syrian construction workers building a Beirut skyscraper live cloistered on the site by night, watching news of their own homes being shelled back home. This poetic documentary meditates on exile, memory, and endless war.

9. 

   9. Unknown

   1980

   A beautiful young woman searching for work to support her family discovers the harsher sides of society, and falls into a fraught romance with the doctor she works for. A Syrian social drama.

10. 

    10. Still Recording

    Lissa Ammetsajjel · 2018

    A film-loving young man tries to teach cinema to others in besieged Eastern Ghouta while his friend is trapped on the government-held side of Damascus, the two documenting their war-torn reality as it unfolds. A raw, immediate war documentary.