Janay Boulos, a young Lebanese journalist at the BBC, first contacts Syrian cameraman Abd Alkader Habak for footage during the final months of one of the bloodiest and most decisive turning points in Syria’s brutal civil war.
Through texts, video exchanges, voice messages and shared moments from afar, their bond deepens as Janay discovers more about the extraordinary young man documenting violence for her reports, whilst Habak’s world becomes increasingly perilous.
When an act of compassion forces Habak to flee Syria, their relationship enters a new phase: for the first time, they meet in person. Distance, war, cultural differences and familial judgements temporarily fade as the two wrap themselves in a cocoon of safety, away from the terror back home. Despite this, they are never far from the question that will soon enough come to haunt them: could two people from such disparate worlds build a life together?
Winner of the World Cinema Documentary Special Jury Award for Journalistic Impact at the Sundance Film Festival, Birds of War is a profoundly moving, unorthodox love story forged on the front lines of geopolitical chaos.