Meyar Al Roumi

Two thousand years ago, it was a flourishing city in the middle of what is now a Syrian desert. At the crossroads of trade routes, Palmyra attracted caravanners from Mesopotamia, India and China. In what remains of its ruins, rediscovered by Europeans in the 17th century, its numerous necropolises bear witness to a prosperous past. Carved in limestone in the first centuries of our era, the faces of the representatives - men, women and children - of its greatest families adorn the walls of its tombs. Since 2012, Danish archaeologist Rubina Raja has been leading a long-term project to find, document and retrace the family trees and daily life of these Palmyrenians.

For Walid, a taxi driver in Damascus, the only place he can steal a private kiss with his love, Suhair, is in his car. When Suhair is invited by her friend to visit Tehran, she and Walid together board a train from the Syrian capital to Tehran. As they follow the stunning scenery captured beautifully on film, Walid and Suhair finally have an opportunity to get to know each other outside of his taxi…

Meyar Al Roumi returns to his native Damascus, eager to start making films, but he is censored. He draws inspiration from it to paint a portrait of the Syrian filmmakers most affected by censorship.