Though light on anything new to say, Birds of War successfully immortalizes a beautiful, almost unbelievable love story that blooms in the wake of violence.
Directors: Janay Boulos, Abd Alkader Habak
Genre: Documentary, War
Run Time: 85′
Sundance Film Festival Premiere: January 24, 2026
U.S. Release Date: TBA
U.K. Release Date: TBA
In a world with countless documentaries to choose from that cover brutal wars or violent uprisings, Birds of War positions itself as half sociopolitical commentary, half love story. Through on-the-ground footage and recovered message exchanges, we’re shown how London-based Lebanese journalist Janay Boulos formed a connection with Syrian activist Abd Alkader Habak (both of whom are directors of the film) during the Syrian civil war in the early 2010s.
What starts as a professional arrangement for Abd to provide the BBC activist footage becomes an unexpected romance spanning 13 years.
On the political side of things, Birds of War achieves the honorable mission of showing Aleppo’s fall, the battle against a wicked regime, and the personal struggles involved throughout. No edges are sanded off, and very few storytelling flourishes are added on beyond the interpersonal narrations of Boulos and Habak. With that said, if you’ve seen similar coverage of the same type of conflict either contemporarily or in hindsight, you’ve likely seen a lot of what this documentary has to offer on that front. That doesn’t take away from the extraordinary coverage that positions us firmly with these activists by any means. For raw footage, it’s often stunning – if difficult – to look at.
The surrounding life of Boulos isn’t shown nearly as much, nor should it be given the film’s subject matter. Instead, her initial side of the story is more about the frustrations she feels as a journalist looking at everything before her. She explicitly spells out the contrast between the pure, unified fight in Abd’s world and her safe, often meaningless job that’s more concerned with sensational stories than actually contributing to change. This is, again, well-tread ground in other stories and documentaries, but locking in on only her perspective on the journalism side still gets her frustrations across without making the fight about her.
Birds of War starts to break out as its own thing once it hones in on the personal connection and eventual love between these two people. It’s the kind of romance that sounds like something straight out of a fictional war drama. Even the way it plays out in this documentary is loaded with poetic texts and a cinematic sense that each person is lighting up something profound within the other. Habak is Boulos’s gateway to the harsh but necessary reality her job fails to fully represent – as well as a mirror of the struggles her own Lebanese people continue to go through – and Boulos is someone from outside Habak’s world that he can confide in without feeling used.
What makes the film even more touching is how, if I were to guess, we’re not exclusively seeing footage that was previously sent back and forth between Boulos and Habak. All of the texts and video calls obviously were, but some of Abd’s footage in action may not have been. If that’s true, then Birds of War is a sweet way of completing the story between these two, in a sense. You’re seeing everything that they may not have shown each other before, strengthening the tale in addition to immortalizing it. It’s not lost on you that these are the perspectives of two people in much bigger circumstances, but it feels like their journeys are bigger.
The story being told in Birds of War is so befitting of a classic narrative that I’d say it feels a little unrealistic had I not known that it’s obviously… well, real. The documentary very likely simplifies and streamlines the complicated emotions as the two “leads” grapple with their ever-changing worlds and continued search for fulfillment together, which is especially noticeable when it skims through their years after the civil war. Considering the film is only 90 minutes long, my best guess is that the footage needed to do this phase of their lives justice wasn’t sufficient.
With that said, if you never read up on or maybe forgot the details of the Syrian civil war, some nuances are going to be lost on you. But the bigger picture, emotional meaning, and visual representation still give you everything you need to take something positive from Birds of War. As a documentary and a representation of the events it depicts, none of it really stands out – although just me saying that is sad for its own reasons. As a portrayal of the personal roads these two took to each other, there’s a bit more to dig into. And no matter what, the fact the film exists at all is special, because it got this real, beautiful story out there. We definitely could use some more of that.
Birds of War: Movie Plot & Recap
Synopsis:
The love story of a Lebanese BBC journalist and a Syrian activist who work together to cover the Syrian civil war.
Pros:
- A touching, cinematic story.
- Impressively captured activist footage.
- Insights into how love and fulfillment can come from unexpected places.
Cons:
- Doesn’t say much new.
- Minimal storytelling structure.
- Some events were possibly over-streamlined.
Birds of War will be screened at the Sundance Film Festival on January 24-31, 2026.