BACK

A short documentary by Yazan Rabee

“In my dream, I’m looking for my home, my safe place, but I never find it.”

Being chased, footsteps that creep ever closer - agents of dictator Assad - a running house; wasn’t I safe in the Netherlands? Why am I back in the war?

Ever since director Yazan Rabee fled Syria, he has been plagued by this recurring nightmare. And he’s not alone: countless Syrians experience similar dreams. His short documentary BACK investigates this phenomenon. It’s a film about fear of death, trauma and being uprooted.

The story is one of great urgency. Many in European politics assert that Syria is safe now, and that Syrians who’ve fled should therefore return. All the while, the cause of millions of Syrian refugees and displaced persons is still in power: the dictator Assad. Though the fighting has ceased in most parts of the country, Syrian civilians are still at risk of persecution and human-rights abuses, even in Damascus and the surrounding area.

BACK is a coproduction between Prospektor, Artillerie and De Ontmoeting. The film has screened at, among others, Netherlands Film Festival, Berlinale, Movies that Matter, Go Short and Hong Kong International Film Festival.

Watch BACK here.

The filmmaker

Yazan Rabee (1994) came to the Netherlands five years ago with only one plan: to become a filmmaker. “There is no plan B,” he says. Yazan graduated from Breda’s Sint Joost academy’s filmschool in 2022 and released two short films simultaneously that year: BACK and Under the Sun. Both premièred at NFF,

De Ontmoeting

BACK was made as part of De Ontmoeting, a development track for young filmmakers. Out of 45 submissions, seven were chosen to premier at the Netherlands Film Festival in September 2022. After that, the films get screened at different festivals and ahead of regular programming in cinemas across the country.