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Doc Alliance Selection 2013
The Shebabs of Yarmouk Axel Salvatori-Sinz

Young Palestinians in Syria, third generation refugees. Nights on the roof, discussions between loyalty and wanderlust, a group on the threshold of adulthood.

The Shebabs of Yarmouk

Documentary Film
France
2012
78 minutes
Subtitles: 
English
French

Credits DOK Leipzig Logo

Producer
Magali Chirouze, Adalios
Director
Axel Salvatori-Sinz
Music
Reem Kelani
Cinematographer
Axel Salvatori-Sinz
Editor
Aurélie Jourdan
Script
Axel Salvatori-Sinz
Sound
Axel Salvatori-Sinz
Ala’a Hassan, Samer, Tasneem and Waed are third-generation Palestinian refugees. They are part of “Les Chebabs”, a group they formed in their teenage years. In this spirited, staunchly humanistic film we follow these youths, living in the 50-year-old camp of Yarmouk in Syria, where rooms are left to leak and living quarters are stacked shoddily one upon the other.
With his observant camera in tow, Axel Salvatori-Sinz films these young people haunted by doubts about their future life choices, caught between loyalty to their friends and a desire to take flight, sometimes leaving the others far behind. Now on the eve of adulthood, they have a genuine thirst for life and for the absolute, while being all confronted to intricate situations.
Between the need for freedom and sticking to the group, between longing for revolt and the prospect of a well-ordered life, choices are hard to make – even more so if you’re a Palestinian refugee in the camp of Yarmouk in Syria.