Killing Anna reviews – the amazing cat-fishing operation that chased the killer from Syria | Video

SAm Benstead digs into what you might call a well-known catfish: how a Syrian student, Annsar Shahoud, who lives in Amsterdam, adopted the name “Anna” online to persuade the Assad regime’s dictator to confess to his crimes. It is not known whether he and his partner, Uğur Ümit Üngör, a professor of genocide, are part of the European network that inspired last year’s fiction. The Way of the Spirit. But the boldness, the disgust and the mental confusion of the work are clearly visible here.

When he first saw the video of what became known as the killing of TadamonÜngör and Shahoud are shocked by what they see: a group of civilians in Damascus who were randomly killed and thrown into a tire pit. They are also happy that they finally have indisputable evidence of al-Assad’s brutality. By connecting to Facebook they manage to track down the Cheshire Cat’s killer: a genius named Amjad Youssef. Acting as Anna, from Syria writing a sympathetic opinion about the government, Shahoud first connects with Youssef on video. For a spook, it’s amazing how a few well-chosen identifiers do wonders for him: pictures of Hafez and Bashar al-Assad on Anna’s wall, a Shia sword around her neck.

Youssef has the worst day in 2022 while the Guardian they mention him in the report. But while they are safe in government-controlled Syria, rule of law is not known. As a result arrested in April this year maybe that’s what got the movie released. Meanwhile, the calm and composed Shahoud admits that the deception is driving him back to his senses; describes Anna as a form of isolation that she uses to protect herself from the horrors of her experiences at the beginning of the civil war.

Benstead describes Shahoud’s quest very effectively and, by sending a ritual to change his life, he is convinced that he will find redemption. To close the film to a little touch, this is perhaps the loss of a greater understanding of the roots of violence in the horror and shame that, according to Shahoud, is the story of Syria. In Youssef’s case, his anger and grief over the loss of his brother during the war seem to have justified his service to the government. Yet we see little of his history, or any evidence of the Baath side taken by Anna. The thriller arc, however, only takes us so far. It prevents the difficult and similar work of a few filmmakers (like, say, Joshua Oppenheimer. The Act of Killing) do: deal with the perpetrators of violence and all destructive violence.