The Firefly Effect
Syrian Artists Between Disappearance, Invisibility, and Reappearance
Jumana Al-Yasiri
This case study is available in Arabic only
5 minute read – April 2, 2026
Home / Publications / The Firefly Effect: Syrian Artists Between Disappearance, Invisibility, and Reappearance
This case study was prepared as part of the Invisible Violence Forum During the Syrian Conflict, held in Berlin on January 22–23, 2025. The forum was organized by a number of Syrian organizations working in the public sphere, with the aim of shedding light on the manifestations of structural and symbolic violence in the Syrian context and analyzing their expressions and impacts from an intersectional perspective.
The Invisible Violence Forum in Berlin brought together the following organizations: Ettijahat – Independent Culture,
Al-Jumhuriya, Syrian Center for Policy Research, Syria Untold, Dawlaty, Syrian Female Journalists Network, Women for Common Spaces.
The views expressed in this case study are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the positions or policies of the institutions that organized this forum.
All intellectual property rights are reserved to the institutions leading this initiative and to the contributors to this paper. This content may be reused or reproduced in whole or in part under the Creative Commons license (CC BY-NC-ND), provided that the source is properly cited, the material is not used for commercial purposes, and no modifications are made.
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A number of Syrian organizations organized the Invisible Violence Forum During the Syrian Conflict, held in Berlin on January 22–23, 2025. During the forum, four case studies were presented as a serious attempt to explore the different manifestations of structural and symbolic violence that have not received sufficient attention in conventional analyses of the Syrian conflict, particularly in the period preceding December 8, 2024.
The four case studies, which will be published sequentially, provide an intersectional reading of specific cases across cultural, social, political, economic, and environmental fields, with the aim of analyzing the causes of invisible violence, its interaction with social culture, and its potential impacts on individuals and communities.
In this study, The Firefly Effect, writer and researcher Jumana Al-Yasiri analyzes how cinema has addressed the Syrian narrative and how Syrian artists have been excluded from the realistic representation of their own cause, while also deconstructing “invisibility” as a form of structural and symbolic violence.
Al-Yasiri examines representations of the Syrian story in a number of fiction films produced between 2017 and 2024 (most of which were produced by non-Syrian crews). She then reformulates her questions in the period following December 8, 2024, as “invisibility” no longer concerns exile alone, but also the public space inside Syria itself. She raises the question of the right to narrate and who is allowed to appear on screen as an agent rather than merely a subject of the story, asking:
“Isn’t one of the most severe forms of violence for the Syrian to become a voice without a face and without an identity?”
— Jumana Al-Yasiri
– April 2, 2026
The Firefly Effect
Syrian Artists Between Disappearance, Invisibility, and Reappearance
Jumana Al-Yasiri
Click here to read the full paper:
This case study is available in Arabic only
The Firefly Effect
Syrian Artists Between Disappearance, Invisibility, and Reappearance
Jumana Al-Yasiri
This case study is available in Arabic only
5 minute read – April 2, 2026
This case study was prepared as part of the Invisible Violence Forum During the Syrian Conflict, held in Berlin on January 22–23, 2025. The forum was organized by a number of Syrian organizations working in the public sphere, with the aim of shedding light on the manifestations of structural and symbolic violence in the Syrian context and analyzing their expressions and impacts from an intersectional perspective.
The Invisible Violence Forum in Berlin brought together the following organizations: Ettijahat – Independent Culture,
Al-Jumhuriya, Syrian Center for Policy Research, Syria Untold, Dawlaty, Syrian Female Journalists Network, Women for Common Spaces.
The views expressed in this case study are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the positions or policies of the institutions that organized this forum.
All intellectual property rights are reserved to the institutions leading this initiative and to the contributors to this paper. This content may be reused or reproduced in whole or in part under the Creative Commons license (CC BY-NC-ND), provided that the source is properly cited, the material is not used for commercial purposes, and no modifications are made.
********
A number of Syrian organizations organized the Invisible Violence Forum During the Syrian Conflict, held in Berlin on January 22–23, 2025. During the forum, four case studies were presented as a serious attempt to explore the different manifestations of structural and symbolic violence that have not received sufficient attention in conventional analyses of the Syrian conflict, particularly in the period preceding December 8, 2024.
The four case studies, which will be published sequentially, provide an intersectional reading of specific cases across cultural, social, political, economic, and environmental fields, with the aim of analyzing the causes of invisible violence, its interaction with social culture, and its potential impacts on individuals and communities.
In this study, The Firefly Effect, writer and researcher Jumana Al-Yasiri analyzes how cinema has addressed the Syrian narrative and how Syrian artists have been excluded from the realistic representation of their own cause, while also deconstructing “invisibility” as a form of structural and symbolic violence.
Al-Yasiri examines representations of the Syrian story in a number of fiction films produced between 2017 and 2024 (most of which were produced by non-Syrian crews). She then reformulates her questions in the period following December 8, 2024, as “invisibility” no longer concerns exile alone, but also the public space inside Syria itself. She raises the question of the right to narrate and who is allowed to appear on screen as an agent rather than merely a subject of the story, asking:
“Isn’t one of the most severe forms of violence for the Syrian to become a voice without a face and without an identity?”
— Jumana Al-Yasiri
