The Fear of Breathing

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TNT

Subtitled 'Stories from the Syrian Revolution', this collation of verbatim interviews edited by director Zoe Lafferty from material she collected with journalists Ruth Sherlock and Paul Wood could, sadly, hardly be more topical.

The words of protesters, activists, deserting soldiers, the tortured and the bereaved - as well as those of a jovial hotelier in favour of President al-Assad’s regime - create something of the restricted and brutally oppressive atmosphere of a country in turmoil where innocent civilians are shot to order by the militia and the prospect of imprisonment is never far away.

Performed with compassion and conviction against a background of screened footage, it makes for disturbing viewing as social media helps create a Facebook battalion and Adam Youssefbeygi’s student activist is tortured again and again.

Sirine Saba’s subversive DJ shines with an almost innocent belief that peaceful protest will yield results, and a photographer recalls the death of Sunday Times journalist Marie Colvin, just one of the thousands of victims claimed – and still being claimed - by this violent internal conflict.

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