Online Response 5 - Return to Homs and Slingshot Hip Hop

Return to Homs is a poignant and personal depiction of the Syrian conflict and civil war. Its main character is the renowned goalkeeper for the national soccer team, Abdul Basset Saroot. The film follows him from the beginning of the peaceful protests as he performs rallying songs to the breakout of civil war and his audacious leadership of a small band of rebels. He is charismatic and relatable, giving emotional and intimate insight into the war-torn area.



Slingshot Hip Hop is another stirring documentary that gives the viewers an insight into a political conflict, especially from a perspective uncommonly envisioned. The story deals with the birth of rap in Israeli occupied Palestinian communities. Two main groups, DAM and PR, give us a personal view of the precarious situation of Palestinians in sector ’48, Gaza, and the West Bank. The two groups (and others) use rap as a peaceful form of vocalizing their struggles and discontent, as well as rallying and informing others. 



Both documentaries are quite moving and convincing films. They do well at encouraging the viewers to empathize with the subjects and their plights. In Return to Homs, we join in Saroot’s anger when the peaceful protesters are attacked, we commiserate when his friends are killed off one by one, we despair when there seems to be no one left but him. One particularly affecting scene is when Saroot himself is shot, and as they dress his wounds he wails for his fallen friends and country; I couldn’t help but sob with him. In Slingshot Hip Hop, the singers are cool and kind people; they include women in their songs, they visit elementary schools and encourage them to stay away from drugs, the spread non-violent messages through their songs. They really seem like ideal role models. 

However, both films are also rather one sided. They show a very tailored and targeted perspective of a certain side of the conflict. In Return to Homs, the media specialist filming the whole thing, is one of Saroot’s closest friends. He largely controls what is being shown and how it is being shown. It is unlikely that he would film anything that made the rebels look merciless or destructive. In Slingshot Hip Hop, the filmmakers also do little to demonstrate the wider subtleties of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, or the explicit perspective of the Israeli side. The subjects and their perspectives are rather limited representations, that narrow the broader political, ethical, and racial issues in both of the featured conflicts. 

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