THE IMMORTAL SERGEANT

The Immortal Sergeant documents a day in the life of filmmaker Ziad Kalthoum, who is recruted to the military as a sergeant with the beginning of the uprise in Syria. He is to lead the former Bassel Al-Assad cinema in Damascus as a military base. Every day after work, he returns to his old life and works as an assistant director. He accompanies the shooting with his handheld camera. The film crew and passers-by form a microcosm in which the different positions of the conflict meet. Many belong to the opposition, but some are also behind Al-Assad.

Ziad Kalthoum was born in Homs in 1981 and graduated after studies in film. Kalthoum’s first feature-length documentary The Immortal Sergeant (2013), deals with the schizophrenic daily life and encounters he experiences between his mandatory military service in the Syrian Army and his role as assistant director during the shooting of Ladder to Damascus.