Brucia la Sabbia

It is certainly easier than there is a hero willing to dive into a well where everyone knows that a dragon lives, rather than finding a man who shows the courage to go down a well whose depths conceal a mystery the well-known Turkish writer Sabahattin Ali wrote.

Riccardo Bianco, a young director from Turin, thought he knew what he was going to face with: a long and bloody war, which has been disrupting Syria for more than five years, but certainly he had never experienced a war on his skin. And it will be this presumption of knowledge that changes this experience profoundly.

His trip to Syria included three stages: Damascus, Kafroun and Aleppo, where he would have to document the resistance of the Salesian school in the city to constant bombing. Immediately the director feels the need to vent his feelings and his involvement in the work: the feelings of sadness, fear, anger and adrenaline emerge.

In the midst of so much desperation and destruction, the director, however, also begins to notice the resilience of the Syrian people, who silently resumed their lives and the reconstruction of their homes. It is there that Riccardo, after seeing so much death and having felt the bombardments vibrate in his chest, abandons his anger, fear and sadness to give birth to the hope that this war is almost over. His is an emotional catharsis while that of the Syrian people also physical, to die and to be reborn stronger.

On his return, he brings images of life, brings an echo of hope. Yet, a short time later, Syria is again torn by conflict and hope no longer seems to be the last to die.