Cell phone footage documentary praised at Cannes

'Silvered water, Syria self-portrait', an amateur footage documentary on the siege of Homs, received a standing ovation at Cannes, where it was screened out of the competition.

Ossama Mohammed, an exiled Syrian filmmaker currently living in Paris, created the movie by compiling hundreds of YouTube videos which were shot on cellphone cameras.

The movie is co-authored by Wiam Simav Bedirxan, a young girl who walked the streets of Homs armed with a video camera, documenting every horror that surrounded her, from bombs, to snipers, to repression. She also followed young Omar, an orphaned boy who held onto his innocence in the ruined town by talking to flowers and his deceased father.

'Little Omar, very brave, very smart, with a great big loss, just facing the world with questions and questions, admiring flowers, it’s an amazing way of resistance, trying to bring back his dead, his killed father by collecting flowers, creating dialogue with his dead father, two voices,' said Mohammed.