Syria | Huck
Huck

Syria

In Syria’s mountains, climbers are pitching new lines to a freer future

Vertical rebirth — Assad’s fall has opened up huge, previously untouched mountain areas for people to explore. Bushra Alzoubi meets a trio of sibling rock climbers who are building a scene from scratch.

  • Huck 83: Life Is A Journey Issue
  • Bushra Alzoubi

Despite volatility, Syrian artists are painting brighter futures through the haze

After the fall — Just over a full year since the collapse of Assad’s dictatorship, the country’s political and social outlook remains fragile. But a new outlook means a blank slate, and a grassroots arts scene is blossoming. Jessie Williams meets the photographers, painters and sculptors forging a new path.

  • Culture
  • Jessie Williams
Man in black uniform restraining person in chair whilst others in red clothing assist in indoor setting with white walls.

In a razed Damascus refugee camp, one martial arts club holds its stance

Yarmouk Fight Club — Once the home of 200,000 Palestinians, the Yarmouk Camp was a bustling community and sanctuary, until Assad’s forces launched a deadly siege in 2013. As a small handful of returnees attempt to rebuild from the rubble, a Muay Thai gym is providing space for catharsis.

  • Sport
  • Jake Pace Lawrie
Group of young people dancing at nightclub with raised arms, purple and blue lighting, crowded dance floor.

Tension and togetherness at a rare Syrian hip-hop open mic night

Latakia levels — After half a century under a bloody dictatorship, Syria has endured massacres on an unprecedented scale in recent times, fuelled by sectarian conflict. In the port city of Latakia, Haydar Daoud and his friends spend their days making rap music, an art form mostly misunderstood by Syrians, yet an essential therapy for disenchanted youth.

  • Huck 82: The Music Issue
  • Aubin Eymard
Cello player and bearded man seated with text 'Spaces Between the Beats' in the background.

After Assad’s fall, Syria’s musicians rebuild from the rubble

Spaces Between the Beats — Following decades of dictatorship and 14 years of civil war, the country’s classical and creative scenes have an opportunity to build from scratch. Andrei Popviciu speaks to the people hoping for a flourishing new era of art and sound.

  • Music
  • Andrei Popoviciu

The photographer capturing five years of the refugee crisis

A dream of Europe — Since Spring 2015, Jacob Ehrbahn has been documenting the worst refugee crisis in recent history. He is determined to make sure the issue, which is still devastating lives, does not fade from public attention.

  • Culture
  • Huck

Moria’s fires expose the stark inhumanity refugees face

Inevitable inferno — The camp’s population has swelled while living conditions have deteriorated under government inaction, making this devastating crisis inevitable.

  • Reportage
  • Alex King

The photography school for children on the Syrian border

Universal language — As the Director of Sirkhane Darkroom, photographer Serbest Salih teaches young people from vulnerable communities – many of them refugees – how to use cameras to process the world around them.

  • Photography
  • Huck

As the world locks down, who will protect refugees?

Where we shelter — Photographer Giles Duley examines the impact COVID-19 will have on refugee camps, where conditions are already barely livable.

  • Opinion
  • Giles Duley

Yellow Days festival and the power of community

‘It’s love that’s key’ — This year, the grassroots ‘festival without borders’ came to Athens – uniting locals, refugees, and citizens from all over the world.

  • Activism
  • Alex King

How this Syrian filmmaker captured war first-hand

For Sama — When civil war broke out in Syria, Waad Al-Kateab picked up the camera – and didn’t put it down. The resulting documentary, co-directed with Edward Watts, humanises a conflict most of us only know through statistics.

  • Film
  • Katie Goh

The Syrian filmmaker who went undercover as an extremist

Risk and resist — In his chilling documentary, Of Fathers And Sons, director Talal Derki paints an intimate portrait of life in a modern Jihadi family.

  • Film
  • Thomas Curry

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