Synopsis

In 2009, Lucas Vernier left for Syria accompanied by his camera and the photographs taken by his grandfather when he was a member of the Camel Corps during the French Mandate. As a diligent young filmmaker, he generously records his journey, reconstructs his grandfather’s route and connects to the descendants of his friends. In 2011, Lucas returned to continue his quest as the Bashar al-Assad regime changes from insurgency turns to civil war. The film changes course, and the quest to find a vanished ancestor becomes a race towards what will soon disappear.

Details

Feature (93mins) | France

Production

Directors:

Lucas Vernier

After studying history and cinema, Lucas Vernier devoted himself to documentary creation. His films, which always start from something that comes to him, are composed over time from research and meetings. His first feature, “Behind the Yellow Door” plays with imagining a post-mortem encounter with his former neighbor Lutz Dille, a damned photographer trapped in the history of art. In 2020, Vernier directed “Ahlan wa sahlan”, testimony to a journey started in Syria in 2009.