Neighbouring the Moon

In many ways, Syrian sisters Juli and Maryam are like other teen girls their age: they love animals, makeup and music. But unlike others, the sisters and their mother have been living for nine years in a cramped room inside Aleppo's biggest hospital. With the Syrian uprising at a near standstill, their mother attends to COVID-19 patients while the two sisters form their own brigade of young hospital helpers. Spirited Juli ceaselessly voices her desire to escape their living situation, but this pits her against her mother, who prefers the safety of the hospital to an unpredictable life on the outside. Beautifully observed and interspersed with poetic moments of reverie between the girls, the film captures their day-to-day lives against the backdrop of the pandemic. What emerges is a touching portrait of a broken family dealing with the trauma of war, chasing an elusive dream of a normal life. Aisha Jamal

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