In Syria's reviews
Media reviews
The Hollywood Reporter
Even though all the violence takes place off screen, Van Leeuw pulls no punches showing its effects in close-ups, where the acting expresses the unspeakable horror.
Time
Ignore the awful punning title; this is a serious and searing piece of work from the Belgian director Philippe Van Leeuw.
Fotogramas
[...] It is the X-ray of a tense suffering, a walk, with a camera that follows the characters, for love and death, hope and despair. [...] Denounces, without cutting a hair, patriarchy, and paints a society where their citizens are victims of some habits and detestable treatment.
Cinemanía
Buñuel in Syria. Mother courage against exterminating angel. No breathe.
ABC
Van Leeuw, gives the shot and camera movement a notarial function that is really overwhelming. [...] The interpretations are [...] more than excellent.
El Mundo
The work of the actors, commanded by a huge Hiam Abbass, simply overwhelms.
El País
The director and scriptwriter reflects on the shame of fleeing, leaving behind yours, and the terrible situations in which solidarity and heroism do not fit.
Le Monde
Philippe Van Leeuw conducts his story with great skill. It is a question of not blowing in front of the horror of the situations without making the show unbearable.
Screen Daily
Long takes and rigorous blocking allow the drama to flow easily from room to room, while a superbly coordinated cast, largely composed of Syrian refugees -children and young adults included- gel magnificently.
Empire
Van Leeuw isn't afraid to tackle the toughest subjects but cares little for the politics behind the conflict. All that matters is survival.
Time Out
It can sometimes feel like 'Insyriated' is awkwardly carrying the weight of an entire complicated conflict on its shoulders - but its sense of claustrophobia and immediacy can also feel horribly convincing.
Caimán Cuadernos de Cine
From the fiction, Van Leeuw constructs his story also in the smallest space possible to reach a reality shared by a whole country at war.