5 Seasons of Revolution
Young independent filmmaker and reporter Lina goes underground to document the Syrian revolution. She adopts a series of aliases to avoid being detected by the violent state; in Damascus, she is Lina, one of many silent passersby, but in Homs, she is the war reporter Maya, and in Aleppo, she is Lama. Lina uses smuggled footage to share the personal reflections and memories of her close group of friends – Susu, Rima, Malaz, and Bassel – as they are slowly pulled deeper into the struggle for freedom and autonomy from enemies known and unknown. One by one, her friends are detained and targeted by the regime, and Lina ends up alone and isolated amidst the violence and chaos. She continues filming to find clarity. Months transform into years. Lina returns to the frontlines again and again to witness the regime’s brutal crackdown as her country morphs into the staging ground for global proxy wars. When Lina is detained and held captive in Aleppo, she witnesses unspeakable suffering and barely escapes. Told over the course of a decade and against the backdrop of shifting historical forces, 5 Seasons of Revolution is Lina’s story; a tale of becoming brave.
Born in Damascus, Lina is a documentary filmmaker, journalist and camerawoman. She has documented events in Jordan, Lebanon, Syria, and Turkey over the past ten years. She holds a master’s degree in documentary filmmaking from Essex University. Lina made short and medium-length documentaries, and her debut feature, 5 Seasons of Revolution, premiered at the Sundance World Cinema Documentary Competition in 2023.
