City of Ghosts Review

City of Ghosts is a documentary independent film about ISIS terrorists in Raqqa, Syria, the citizen journalists exposing them, and the power of media used by both.  In 2014, ISIS took over Raqqa by force and recruited more soldiers to their cause by distributing CDs.  These CDs were poor in quality, looked amateur, and were not producing the results they wanted.  A group of 17 correspondents inside Raqqa filmed the actions of ISIS and transmitted their footage to another group of citizen activists outside of Raqqa who would then publish their footage online for the world to see.  ISIS caught on and stepped up their game, smartly, viciously, successfully.

For 40 years, Assad ruled Syria.  Slowly, Syrians had enough and rebelled.  A group of high school students sprayed graffiti demanding Assad leave and free Syria.  The government arrested those students, tortured them and killed them to send a message.  Their message failed and a full revolt arose, successfully toppling the regime.  Unfortunately for the Syrians, there was not a succession plan in place to set up a government to rule once Assad had been overthrown.  A militant group of Muslims named ISIS took Raqqa and they were even worse than Assad.

 

ISIS launched a three-pronged attack.  First, they attacked by force.  Then, they attacked by upping the quality of their videos used to recruit soldiers.  They utilized Hollywood style filming techniques and special effects to entice Syrians to join their "paradise".  Finally, they found out who was working against them and used intimidation to scare them off.  They would publicly execute their family members, they would post pictures of those working against them and their addresses encouraging their soldiers and followers to kill them.  They demanded that all satellites be removed and destroyed so they could be in complete control of any media entering or leaving Raqqa.  They drove around in vans detecting internet signals and killing violators.  But a few brave resisters would not be deterred realizing that either they would successfully share the truth, or they would be killed.

This is a documentary that uses actual footage of the atrocities being committed by ISIS in Syria.  These are not Hollywood actors, there are no special effects or makeup tricks.  What you see is real.  And that makes this film brutal and painful but necessary to watch.  The preview showed that you would be given front-line access to the daily terror to which Syrians are subjected, and that's what the film delivered.  It was hard to give this a typical star rating because it's not meant to entertain, it's not meant to thrill and take you to a make believe place.  Even movies that are based on actual events are a little easier to handle because they are a step removed.  They are recreations of things that happened and the viewer can take some solace knowing it's still a Hollywood movie.  I'm not often squeamish at horror films with gore and blood.  I'm more curious at how the special effects team pulled it off.  With City of Ghosts, what you see is actually happening and cannot be brushed off as a trick.  I honestly was not sure what exactly to expect.  I didn't know how much would be shown in the movie and in how much detail.  The movie is graphic, but restrained.  You do see executions. You do see children being brainwashed and threatened with no choice but to follow ISIS.  You do see the aftermath of public beheadings.  But you are spared some of the brutality as the camera will film the reactions of the Syrians who had to witness their fellow Syrians, their fellow journalists, their friends and families being killed.  But their goal is to spread the graphic truth of what is going on and their lives are at stake.  I gave City of Ghosts an anticipatory 4 Star prediction.  I am going to stand by my 4 Star Rating, even though it breaks my own rating scale because this will not be a movie I'll be owning.  I'm giving this a higher rating because I think it is an important film that we all need to see.  Not in spite of how uncomfortable it may make us, but rather because of how uncomfortable it should make us. So, what movie will be on my mind next?  We shall see.