For 14 years, Syrian filmmakers Hasan Kattan and Fadi Al-Halabi have journeyed together through war and storytelling. Their bond was forged on the frontlines of revolution, where their cameras recorded terror and hope, laughter and heartbreak – moments that defined a generation. Years later, their story takes an unexpected turn. Confined inside a UK asylum hotel, Hasan and Fadi document a new chapter shaped not by bombs, but by waiting, bureaucracy, and exile. Amid rising anti-refugee hostility, they turn the camera inward, exploring friendship and displacement, and how filming itself becomes an act of survival when the future is so uncertain. Presented at the International Film Festival Rotterdam.

The film “Allies in Exile” is part of the Displacement Film Fund and will be screened with “Super Afghan Gym”, “Whispers of a Burning Scent”, “Sense of Water” and “Rotation”.