''City of Ghosts'' is a 2017 Arabic-language American documentary film about the Syrian media activist group Raqqa Is Being Slaughtered Silently as they face the realities of life undercover, on the run, and in exile after their homeland is taken over by

ISIS Isis (; ''Ēse''; ; Meroitic: ''Wos'' 'a''or ''Wusa''; Phoenician: 𐤀𐤎, romanized: ʾs) was a major goddess in ancient Egyptian religion whose worship spread throughout the Greco-Roman world. Isis was first mentioned in the Old Kin ...

in 2014. The film was directed by Oscar-nominated and

Emmy Award The Emmy Awards, or Emmys, are an extensive range of awards for artistic and technical merit for the American and international television industry. A number of annual Emmy Award ceremonies are held throughout the calendar year, each with the ...

-winning filmmaker

Matthew Heineman Matthew Heineman is an American filmmaker. The Sundance Film Festival called Heineman "one of the most talented and exciting documentary filmmakers working today", while Anne Thompson of ''Indiewire'' wrote that Heineman is a "respected and gif ...

(''

Cartel Land ''Cartel Land'' is a 2015 American documentary film directed by Matthew Heineman about the Mexican Drug War, especially vigilante groups fighting Mexican drug cartels. The film focuses on Tim "Nailer" Foley, the leader of Arizona Border Rec ...

''). Heineman won the Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Documentary Award from the

Directors Guild of America The Directors Guild of America (DGA) is an entertainment guild that represents the interests of film director, film and television director, television directors in the United States motion picture industry and abroad. Founded as the Screen Dire ...

for the film, becoming one of only three people to win the prestigious honor twice. ''City of Ghosts'' also won the Courage Under Fire Award from the

International Documentary Association International Documentary Association (IDA), founded in 1982, is a non-profit 501(c)(3) that promotes nonfiction filmmakers, and is dedicated to increasing public awareness for the documentary genre. Their major program areas are: Advocacy, Filmm ...

"in recognition of conspicuous bravery in the pursuit of truth" and was listed on over 20 critic and year-end lists for Best Documentary of 2017. ''City of Ghosts'' was nominated for the Primetime Emmy Award for Exceptional Merit in Documentary Filmmaking,

BAFTA Award The British Academy Film Awards, more commonly known as the BAFTA Film Awards is an annual award show hosted by the British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA) to honour the best British and international contributions to film. The cer ...

, PGA Award, IDA Award for Best Documentary Features.

Release

The film premiered at the

2017 Sundance Film Festival The 2017 Sundance Film Festival took place from January 19 to January 29, 2017. The first lineup of competition films was announced November 30, 2016. Awards The following awards were presented: * Grand Jury Prize: Dramatic – ''I Don't Feel at ...

. It was subsequently acquired by

Amazon Amazon most often refers to: * Amazons, a tribe of female warriors in Greek mythology * Amazon rainforest, a rainforest covering most of the Amazon basin * Amazon River, in South America * Amazon (company), an American multinational technolog ...

in a $2 million deal. The film was released theatrically by

Amazon Studios Amazon Studios is an American television and film producer and distributor that is a subsidiary of Amazon. It specializes in developing television series and distributing and producing films. It was started in late 2010. Content is distributed th ...

, A&E IndieFilms and

IFC Films IFC Films is an American film production and distribution company based in New York. It is an offshoot of IFC owned by AMC Networks. It distributes mainly independent films under its own name, select foreign films and documentaries under its ...

on July 14, 2017.

Reception

''City of Ghosts'' received critical acclaim upon release. , the film holds a 98% 'fresh' rating on

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wan ...

, based on 105 reviews, with an average rating of 8.40/10. The website's critical consensus reads, "''City of Ghosts'' takes a hard-hitting, ground-level look at atrocities in a part of the world that may seem foreign to many viewers, but whose impact will be no less devastating." On

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created by Jason Dietz, Marc ...

, it holds a rating of 86/100, based on 31 reviews, indicating "universal acclaim". Charlie Phillips of ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers '' The Observer'' and '' The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the ...

'' gave the film five stars and called it "the definitive contemporary documentary about the tragedy of

Syria Syria ( ar, سُورِيَا or سُورِيَة, translit=Sūriyā), officially the Syrian Arab Republic ( ar, الجمهورية العربية السورية, al-Jumhūrīyah al-ʻArabīyah as-Sūrīyah), is a Western Asian country loc ...

Awards and nominations

References

External links

* * * *
Official trailer
{{Raqqa 2017 films 2017 documentary films American documentary films Documentary films about jihadism Documentary films about journalism Documentary films about the Internet 2010s Arabic-language films Sundance Film Festival award winners 2010s American films Films directed by Matthew Heineman