LONDON, June 30 (Reuters) – Journalist Janay Boulos first connected with Syrian cameraman Abd Alkader Habak in 2016, when the London-based BBC reporter sought footage from him during the final months of the battle for Aleppo.
What began as a professional relationship soon evolved into something more personal, sustained through written and recorded messages, and eventually into a love story now told in their documentary “Birds of War,” released in UK cinemas on Friday.
The film is set against the Syrian conflict and the 2019 protests in Boulos’ home country, Lebanon. It weaves together footage shot by both journalists — from the aftermath of attacks in Aleppo to Habak’s escape from Syria — alongside their messages checking in on one another, offering an intimate perspective on life shaped by war.
“I find that the news headlines…sometimes I feel like it’s scaremongering more than creating compassion,” Boulos told Reuters.
“When you understand…people’s backgrounds, where they come from, what forced them into…leaving their countries…what they’ve experienced, who their family is, how they grew up, that creates more of an understanding of humanity,” she said.
Originally from Idlib and based in Aleppo during the conflict, Habak fled Syria in 2017. The pair met in person, married and settled in London.
After the 2024 overthrow of Bashar al-Assad, Habak has gone back to Syria several times. Boulos, who left the BBC to pursue independent filmmaking, also regularly returns home.
“I’m almost going every month to Syria and also Janay is…going every month back to Lebanon,” Habak said. “We are making stories from there.”
The film, which won the Special Jury Prize at the Sundance festival, takes its title from the nickname the pair gave each other when covering the Syrian conflict.
“We are in the film these two people who love each other,” Boulos said. “But war keeps finding its way between them somehow.”
(Reporting by Marie-Louise GumuchianEditing by Ros Russell)
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