Return to Homs (2013) poster
2013 · documentary · war · uprising

Return to Homs

Directed by Talal Derki1h 27m2013
ElsewhereIMDb7.61kRT93%Metacritic85TMDB6.772
  • heavy
  • brisk
  • extreme
Movie DNA

Heavy, kinetic, extreme documentary / war, grounded in texture. Nihilistic, epic, measured, hand-scored across twelve axes of taste.

How every film is hand-scored →

Filmed over 3 years in Homs, accompanying 2 outstanding young men from the time they were only dreaming of freedom to the time when they are forced to change course. Basset, the 19yo national football team goalkeeper, who became an outspoken demonstration leader in the city, then an icon revolution singer, till he becomes a fighter... a militia leader. Ossama, his 24yo friend, renowned citizen journalist, cynical pacifist... as his views are forced to change, until he is detained by army secret service. It is the story of a city, of which the world have heard a lot, but never really got closer than news, never really had the chance to experience how a war erupted. a modern times epic of youth in war time.

Our read · Return to Homs (2013) reads as a heavy, kinetic, grounded documentary · war · uprising entry — extreme in intensity, epic-stakes in scope, measured in temperature, nihilistic in outlook. Hand-scored on twelve axes of taste — mood, pacing, weirdness, hope, stakes, humour, reality, density, warmth, auteur, intensity, and era — with a derived palette drawn from its dominant cinematography.

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The shape of Return to Homs

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What watching it is actually like.

You want raw immersive documentary from inside the Syrian uprising and war.

ends unsettlingit leaves you shakena rollercoastergrips by minute 5attention 5/5feels its lengthsubtitles: full
Date nightWith friendsSoloWith parentsKids around
Heads-upgraphic violencechild peril

Skip it tonightReal war violence and shattered hopes will wreck your evening.

DNA · twelve axes

The reading.

Each axis is hand-scored — not derived from votes or genre averages. The marker shows where this film sits; the gradient fill uses the film's own cinematography palette.

Mood · HeavyCosy
Pacing · Slow-burnKinetic
Intensity · GentleExtreme
Weirdness · ConventionalSurreal
Hope · NihilisticRedemptive
Stakes · IntimateEpic
Humour · NoneBroad
Reality · GroundedFantastical
Density · SparseTwisty
Warmth · ColdTender
Auteur · TransparentSignature
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