RAQQA: SHATTERED LIVES

A 80 minutes documentary

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Directed by Hélène LAM TRONG

With the support of France Télévisions, CNC and Procirep Angoa,

International Distribution ZED

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Raqqa has become infamous for being proclaimed the capital of the Daech caliphate.

This small town in central Syria has served as a laboratory for the creation of an Islamic State and as a rear base for organising attacks around the world, particularly in France and Belgium.

 

The town was almost entirely razed to the ground by international coalition aircraft to wipe out the Daech fighters. And the inhabitants were left to fend for themselves on the ruins of the caliphate.

The tragic fate of Raqqa is told to us by those who experienced the barbarity of the terrorist organisation from the inside, and then the violence of the war against Daech.

Ten years after the proclamation of the Islamic State, their new-found freedom has a bitter taste. Jihadist ideas are flourishing again, and Bashar al-Assad's army is lying in ambush to regain control of this territory.

 

Peace is fragile in Raqqa. How much longer can it hold out?

 

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Hélène Lam Trong is a journalist and film-maker. She travelled to Syria several times between 2018 and 2024. She is particularly interested in issues relating to identity and childhood. She was previously a reporter at Radio France. She is the winner of the Albert Londres Prize (2023).