UK Premiere Screening: Syria, Assads’ Twilight

How did a man who claimed two years ago to have gone into medicine because it’s a “humanitarian job” come to be responsible for the deaths of so many thousands of Syrian people?

Once written off as goofy and incapable, Bashar al-Assad vowed to fight corruption and embrace globalisation when he came to office in 2000. Instead, he has walked in the steps of his father, Hafez, who 30 years ago unleashed a brutal assault against the town of Hama that reportedly saw 20,000 killed.

Syria, the Assads’ Twilight tells the story of the Assad regime, revealing how Bashar, like his father, was unable to tolerate dissent. Filmed in 2011, it poses the question of whether, in the age of social media, Bashar can resist the challenge against his rule.