Pink Moon

One morning in August 2012, renowned Syrian photographer Issa Touma saw young men lugging sandbags into his street. It turned out to be the start of the Syrian uprising in the city of Aleppo. Touma grabbed his camera and spent nine days holed up in his apartment, recording what was happening outside. The result? An unprecedented glimpse into a war that has been raging for three years now.

Ever since there’s only one male northern white rhino remaining on earth, armed bodyguards protect him, tourists are standing in line to make a selfie with him, journalists rush to Kenya to tell his story and scientists are determined to find ways to reproduce his species. What is so attractive about the threat of extinction? How does this reflect on us?

In this documentary, director Nathalie Faber approaches the troubled relationship between humans and nature as a relationship crisis. Four people with different relationships to nature, in a unique setting, present their perspectives to psychiatrist and relationship therapist Dirk De Wachter. The documentary explores how imagination can help us reassess nature and reconnect with it, because separation is not an option. Can we still overcome this relationship crisis?

Syrian photographer Issa Touma regularly travels from Europe to his city of birth, Aleppo. He visits family, friends and students who still live there, primarily viewing it as his task to record the art of survival during one of the biggest human dramas of our time.