City of Ghosts is a documentary feature film that goes behind enemy lines in Syria to follow the citizen journalist collective Raqqa is Being Slaughtered Silently as they attempt to expose the human rights violations by ISIS and fight the terrorist group's misinformation campaigns in their home country. This group of people face the realities of life undercover, on the run, and in exile, risking their lives to stand up against one of the greatest evils in the world today I was putting off watching this documentary because I wasn't sure the extent of barbarism that was going to be shown on screen and when you think about it that is ridiculous. We should all see what is happening in Syria but sadly most of us turn a blind eye to what it happening. As it happens this film isn't too graphic. It doesn't show the ISIS videos of beheadings or anything like that instead it focuses on this amazing group of people. What I find incredibly sad is that not only are friends and family of this group dying all the time but when some of them escape to Europe to continue their online fight with ISIS , they are treated like lepers by far right wing groups. The documentary itself does fall off a bit in the last third and is a little bit self congratulatory but to be honest these people deserve all the credit they can get.

Director Matthew Heineman's new documentary covers a group of Syrian citizen-journalists who, while in exile, and continuing to maintain contacts in their native city of Raqqa ("The City of Ghosts"), disseminated chilling videos of atrocities perpetrated by ISIS, for all the world to see via the internet.The group, which calls itself Raqqa Is Being Slaughtered Silently (or RBSS), was initially formed to expose the crimes being committed by the Syrian Army and members of the regime of Bashar al-Assad. They switched their focus when ISIS took over their city in 2014.The most compelling part of the documentary are the clips that emanate from the occupied city itself, chronicling the depraved actions of ISIS. There are upsetting images of men being executed in the street and corpses mounted in crucifixion tableaux. Heineman follows three key members, Aziz, the official spokesman for the group and brothers Hamoud and Mohamad, who are both seen watching a tragic ISIS video showing the execution of their father who was murdered in retaliation for their activities.Most of the footage that wasn't shot in Syria covers the three men as they work out of safe houses in both Turkey and Germany. They all come off as heroic as their lives are in constant danger-halfway through the documentary we view the funeral of one of their leaders, who was murdered outside of Syria, while working for RBSS.Aside from Aziz receiving an award from the nonprofit group the Committee to Protect Journalists in New York City at the beginning of the film, Heineman covers the three activists in their daily activities (these include showing how they go about disseminating information that they are constantly receiving from their undercover operatives in Raqqa). Perhaps the film's central weakness is that the director chooses to eschew in depth coverage of the complex history of the Syrian Civil War for a more determined focus on the lives of the activists, who are nothing more than ordinary men, thrust into a life of uncertainty not of their own choosing. While decidedly admirable and heroic, the machinations of Heineman's activists lack conflict and their scenes aren't as gripping as the footage shot in ISIS-held territory.City of Ghosts is valuable as it educates the public as to what's been going on in a part of the world that is often shrouded in mystery. There's some powerful stuff here and it's certainly worth your time to investigate.

For the briefest of moments, we were certain that the combination of pure evil and military might died in a German bunker at 1945. there are many examples in the 21st century to provide us with clear cut proof that it hasn't. we don't need City of ghosts to be reminded of that but even in the age of full transparency evil can still thrive and probably better than ever before.City of ghosts centers around a subservient group of ordinary Syrians who found themselves in unordinary times and became journalists who report against the takeover, cleansing and terrorizing of the Syrian city of Raqaa by ISIS. ISIS entered the city on 2013 in the midst of the civil war that still goes on and immediately called the citizens to cooperate or face the consequences. Those highly unsubtle threats were recorded and were broadcast by a group mention before. This groups is known as RBSS (acronym of : Raqqa is Being Slaughtered Silently). ISIS who's agenda is to show that the newly conquered city is blooming, finds in RBSS a cardinal threat and starts in brutal campaigns that include murdering activists of the organization (even those who fled Syria) and in many cases, murdering the kin. ISIS is not the first organization to launch brutal and senseless murders but is different than any other militia in both there propensity to flaunt it and in their high production value of their brutal videos.RBSS members are normative citizens and none of the people presented in the film, lodging in undisclosed location in Germany has a death wish. The eminent threat is permeating to their personal life and although they never say it aloud, it brings doubts to their commitment. A doubt any human being can understandThe direction is minimalist and is comprised almost exclusively of the testimony of these activists. No English voice-over is used for background purposes or contemplation. The movie, wisely, leaves the contemplation to the viewer. The movie is so engrossing that in the few moments that I wasn't transfixed to the screen, I thought that everyone should watch this beautiful (albeit hard to watch) documentary that proves once again that world indifference can lead to unfathomable horror and even in the day of modern communication, we still can't see what's going on in many parts of the globe. But the most important point the movie makes is that history can repeat itself and with ISIS recruiting adults and children with funding and a fake sense of purpose, a Nazi like threat to humanity is not just material for the history channel, it could very well be reported in the evening news 10 out of 10 in my FilmOmeter

City of Ghosts is a documentary independent film about ISIS terrorists in Raqqa, Syria, the citizen journalists exposing them, and the power of media used by both. In 2014, ISIS took over Raqqa by force and recruited more soldiers to their cause by distributing CDs. These CDs were poor in quality, looked amateur, and were not producing the results they wanted. A group of 17 correspondents inside Raqqa filmed the actions of ISIS and transmitted their footage to another group of citizen activists outside of Raqqa who would then publish their footage online for the world to see. ISIS caught on and stepped up their game, smartly, viciously, successfully.For 40 years, Assad ruled Syria. Slowly, Syrians had enough and rebelled. A group of high school students sprayed graffiti demanding Assad leave and free Syria. The government arrested those students, tortured them and killed them to send a message. Their message failed and a full revolt arose, successfully toppling the regime. Unfortunately for the Syrians, there was not a succession plan in place to set up a government to rule once Assad had been overthrown. A militant group of Muslims named ISIS took Raqqa and they were even worse than Assad.ISIS launched a three-pronged attack. First, they attacked by force. Then, they attacked by upping the quality of their videos used to recruit soldiers. They utilized Hollywood style filming techniques and special effects to entice Syrians to join their "paradise". Finally, they found out who was working against them and used intimidation to scare them off. They would publicly execute their family members, they would post pictures of those working against them and their addresses encouraging their soldiers and followers to kill them. They demanded that all satellites be removed and destroyed so they could be in complete control of any media entering or leaving Raqqa. They drove around in vans detecting internet signals and killing violators. But a few brave resisters would not be deterred realizing that either they would successfully share the truth, or they would be killed.This is a documentary that uses actual footage of the atrocities being committed by ISIS in Syria. These are not Hollywood actors, there are no special effects or makeup tricks. What you see is real. And that makes this film brutal and painful but necessary to watch. The preview showed that you would be given front-line access to the daily terror to which Syrians are subjected, and that's what the film delivered. It was hard to give this a typical star rating because it's not meant to entertain, it's not meant to thrill and take you to a make believe place. Even movies that are based on actual events are a little easier to handle because they are a step removed. They are recreations of things that happened and the viewer can take some solace knowing it's still a Hollywood movie. I'm not often squeamish at horror films with gore and blood. I'm more curious at how the special effects team pulled it off. With City of Ghosts, what you see is actually happening and cannot be brushed off as a trick. I honestly was not sure what exactly to expect. I didn't know how much would be shown in the movie and in how much detail. The movie is graphic, but restrained. You do see executions. You do see children being brainwashed and threatened with no choice but to follow ISIS. You do see the aftermath of public beheadings. But you are spared some of the brutality as the camera will film the reactions of the Syrians who had to witness their fellow Syrians, their fellow journalists, their friends and families being killed. But their goal is to spread the graphic truth of what is going on and their lives are at stake. I gave City of Ghosts an anticipatory 4 Star prediction. I am going to stand by my 4 Star Rating, even though it breaks my own rating scale because this will not be a movie I'll be owning. I'm giving this a higher rating because I think it is an important film that we all need to see. Not in spite of how uncomfortable it may make us, but rather because of how uncomfortable it should make us. marksmoviemind.blogspot.com