Sand and Blood

Through private video footage found online, young refugees from Syria and Iraq tell the story of how their carefree lives became a nightmare of war. Mostly filmed on mobile phones and at times quite bizarre, this fascinating montage strikingly illustrates the deterioration into chaos, the rise of tribal conflict, the influence of jihadism, and other extremist hatred that drive entire families apart. The young people provide the narration to accompany the video footage, offering an inside view of their worlds before they descended into misery. One Iraqi looks back nostalgically at the relatively uncomplicated time when Saddam Hussein was in power, while another has lost any desire to watch action or horror movies after his experiences in Mosul. Meanwhile, a young Syrian wishes he could be back in Damascus peacefully drinking tea, without having to think about things like freedom. The found footage from social media and other online platforms provides a disturbing view of day-to-day life in wartime.