Syrian director Najdah Ismail Anzour looks at the destruction of the ancient city of Palmyra due to the war with a heartfelt and hopeful eye, as he looks forward to joining efforts to restore the rest of the landmarks to restore the city to its former glory.
In his new feature film The Blood of Palm, Anzour uses Palmyra as the backdrop to the story of three soldiers, each of whom belongs to a different Syrian city.
In Palmyra, they meet Syrian archaeologist Khaled al-Assad, who delivers a small notebook to write what they see and do during their assignment. After the fate ends, the notebooks reach the hands of a young boy whose father was killed because he was hiding a soldier in his home.
During all the scenes of murder, a woman in black appears in front of the victims and the devastating effects.
In 2015, the Islamic State of Palmyra, which includes Roman ruins, is listed by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) on its World Heritage List. As in other areas of Syria and Iraq that the organization annexed to what it called the “Caliphate”, many monuments and buildings were publicly destroyed as idols, while the group secretly benefited from the illegal sale of other pieces.
In August of the same year, the organization executed the director of antiquities, Khaled al-Assad, who was 82 years old and hung his body on an archaeological column.
"Palmyra is not only a Syrian cultural heritage, it is really the Syrian people, but a human and global heritage," said director Najdah Anzour. "The importance of Palmyra is to let people know how much destruction the great archaeological city has suffered. This sabotage was deliberate sabotage."
Anzour hopes that his film, which was screened in European cinemas, will show that his film shows the scale of destruction in Palmyra.