Syrian Civil War

3–4 minutes

Genre: Spy thriller cum war movie

Platform: Lionsgate Play thru Amazon (Paid)

Time: 8 episodes x average 45 minutes

Languages: English. French. Arabic. Kurdish

Cast: Mélanie Thierry (Anna Habert). Souheila Yacoub (Sarya Dogan). James Krishna Floyd (Nasser Yassin). Dean Ridge (Paul Wilkins). Leo Hatton (Ellie Gordon). Zed Josef (Jake Al-Shami). Tasnim Cheham (Nisrine Dakka). Thibaut Evrard (Maximilien Weiser).

Plot: Anna rescues a 12 year old girl Nisrine from being sold as a sex slave. Nasser is still being pressured by Anna to get information on the ISIS and but Paul shoots her dead. Sarya is back from France after recovering from her life threatening wounds. Max, a French journalist wonders, how she was airlifted to France , since he has heard rumors of a French woman code named Shamaran working for the all female YPJ military unit. Ellie, a student counsellor in Lubbock, Texas, sees a video of a masked jihadi with a strong Texan accent and is sure that it is her much younger former student Jake, with whom she had an intense affair. She gets in touch with Jake who instructs her how to come to Raqqa to be with him forever…

The disparate strands of the story are superbly and deftly woven together neatly into episodes which usually show how the entire ISIS operations affect everyone and has long term consequences. Since Anna is shot dead by Paul, Nasser and he grow distant , though not at loggerheads. Nasser moves to the oil production unit, so that he can get information about how the oil money is moved around and get closer to the “money man” Jake. Nisrine, whose mother taught her French, wants to avenge her mother being sold into ISIS through a contractor.

The proceedings appear too complicated at first but are absolutely absorbing and ultimately disturbing to watch, especially the ISIS scenes. Elle is so madly in love with her student that she betrays the FBI team who want to apprehend him and reaches Raqqa to be with her Jake. At first , she is shocked at the instant justice doled out to homosexuals, pedophiles, and anyone who doesn’t agree with the ISIS way of life – being thrown alive from a building’s roof. Later she proves to be the perfect ISIS bride, even betraying one of the runaway women , to be sold as a slave. Her brainwashing is complete and these scenes are really disturbing.

The crisscross plot keeps moving at a blistering pace and yet we know all the strands that are in play. Paul’s brainwashing is also complete; he doesn’t want anything to do with the West and is now a complete ISIS acolyte, even ready to betray his childhood friend Nasser.

There is enough material here to keep us absorbed over the eight riveting and disturbing episodes (there is actually a warning before each episode about disturbing scenes). The oil extraction through very primitive and crude methods is shown fairly realistically.

There are some major goofs too – like women being allowed out alone without accompanying men. Usually this was not allowed with the all female al Khansa brigade questioning such lone women; in real life such lone women would have been immediately flogged or executed. Also the characters look too fresh and well bathed ; continuous field operations without any bathing or cleaning facilities would mean that they would all have been very dirty and filthy.

All these goofs can be overlooked as this fictional story is set around two incredibly disturbing realities of recent history that is only a decade old – the ISIS treating women as things to be sold and the all female YPJ taking up arms to fight them head on.

Overall a superb , disturbing view of recent historical events that pulls no punches

Historical background – 4 out of 5

Script – 4 out of 5

Story – 4 out of 5

Direction – 4 out of 5

Photography – 4 out of 5

Total – 4 out of 5

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Genre: Spy thriller cum war movie

Platform: Lionsgate Play thru Amazon (Paid)

Time: 8 episodes x average 45 minutes

Languages: English. French. Arabic. Kurdish

Cast: Félix Moati (Antoine Habert). Mélanie Thierry (Anna Habert). Souheila Yacoub (Sarya Dogan). James Krishna Floyd (Nasser Yassin). Jaouhar Ben Ayed (Iyad Bel Tagi). Dean Ridge (Paul Wilkins). James Purefoy (Stanley). Roda Canioglu (Commandant Adar). Julia Faure (Lorraine).

Plot: While visiting the hospital with his wife Lorraine, architect Antoine watches a news clip about Kurdish women fighters, fighting ISIS and is sure that he has seen his supposedly dead sister Melanie, when the video clip ends with an explosion. Antoine goes on a trip to Istanbul to visit Luke, an injured American in the video clip, which further takes him to the Syrian border and finally into Syrian heartland, in the middle of the Syrian Civil War. About to be ‘sold’ to ISIS soldiers, he is inadvertently rescued by the Kurdish female soldiers of the YPG who think he is also part of ISIS. Meanwhile three friends from Britain, Nasser, Iyad and Paul, join ISIS, due to a perceived ‘Islamophobia’ and “injustices’ in Britain. There is only one problem – Nasser has already been recruited by an intelligence officer known as Stanley who keeps popping up at regular intervals. Meanwhile Antoine meets Sarya, a Kurdish fighter; she is sure that Melanie is dead and asks him to return back to France which he refuses and goes with them on missions, determined to find out the truth about Melanie…

Its also clear from Nasser’s behavior that there is something very “off” about him as he is always watchful and cautious unlike his two friends who exult in the mayhem. I have already given a mild spoiler in that in Episode 3. Nasser, ex British Army and supposedly a British ISIS recruit, is already a spy for a man named Stanley whom he meets somewhere in no-man’s land and shares information about ISIS. (Don’t ask me how Nasser and Stanley escaped the regular ISIS patrols). There are some “are you kidding me” moments like these. Beyond that , its an absorbing thriller with some disturbing scenes in the ISIS segments.

The beauty of the series lies in the fact that like every good or great story, this is a quest. It’s about Antoine’s quest for the truth behind Melanie’s death. She was an archaeologist who had an Iranian boyfriend activist who was deported back to Iran and executed. She was supposedly blown up in a car bomb in Cairo due to her anti Iran activism. Antoine refuses to let go of this and keep digging more and more, while watching the brave Kurdish women fight off the ISIS who think they won’t attain paradise if they are killed by a woman! The women have much more to lose than anyone and so fight fiercely. The switches between Antoine’s quest, Nasser’s actions, the ISIS depredations (very disturbing), and the parallel stories that they generate are very interesting as we want to know what happened to Melanie and what is happening to the Kurdish women who have sworn to fight to death.

Spoilers: This series is NOT an easy watch as Episodes 3 and 4 deal with the ISIS depredations. Be warned, that though there is nothing graphic the sound effects, the actions and the dialogues make it clear what’s happening onscreen. All the more reason that the YPG women fight to the death. However, from Episodes 5 onwards, it more or less becomes a pure spy series as we learn about Melanie, Stanley, Nasser and how their fates are intertwined with each other. Iyad has become kill-happy while Paul is sure that there is something wrong with Nasser, as he has seen a change in his behavior.

Both Season 1 and Season 2 are available on Lionsgate Play (through Amazon Prime) and just for this series, I have subscribed to it. The night scenes are at times too dark and they give the required effect of dread.

If you want to watch a well-made series embedded in the brutality of the Syrian Civil War, the ISIS brutalities and all that centers around it, then this makes an equally disturbing and thrilling watch, due to the accurate historical backgrounds.