War Diary | Photo: Carsten Stormer
Five years, 15,000 takes, one film. Our Zeitenspiegel colleague Carsten Stormer has been documenting the war in Syria since 2012. “War Diary” is his cinematic journal.
Directed by: Marc Wiese
Art, 07/04/2018 at 10:55 PM
War Diary | Photo: Carsten Stormer
In the makeshift clinic in Aleppo, the injured are washed in like waves. The camera drifts, for minutes, without a cut. A bakery on a narrow alley, a small window in the wall, the hungry wait for bread for hours. The people have become flotsam of war. On a bombed-out street, a man sweeps the pavement.
Filmmaker Carsten Stormer has witnessed the brutality, but also the heroism of people. A former teacher becomes the editor-in-chief of a resistance newspaper. She smuggles cartoons against Assad through the regime's checkpoints. The White Helmets initially dig people out of the rubble without helmets and shovels. The film shows the absurdity of such a war. Carsten Stormer is always there, filming hundreds of hours. And he has no idea what price he himself will have to pay for it.
“Wounded people are washing up at the small hospital. One after another, minute by minute. I see, I film, and I suppress. I can't get all the blood out of my head and I just keep working,” says Stormer. Everyone who works in Syria for a longer period leaves a piece of their soul behind in the torn country. “War Diary” is a very personal film, a cinematic essay over five years.