"The Lost Souls of Syria" by Stéphane Malterre and Garance Le Caisne is a documentary that follows the whistleblower codenamed "Caesar" and the impact of the photographs he smuggled out of Syria's military prisons. The photographs document the atrocities and human rights abuses committed in these prisons during the Syrian civil war. As well as following Ceaser's attempts to make the photographs public, the film follows the struggles of human rights lawyers and relatives of people who have disappeared in Syria's prison system during the civil war.
I worked with Gregor Keienburg on the score. The music has a rather dark and oppressive tone. We experimented a lot with different techniques to create organic drones and soundscapes using electronic and acoustic instruments. The score features a lot of drumming with soft mallets in a grand piano, viola da gamba as well as different techniques using tape loops, echoes and synthesizers.
We were careful not to make an overly emotional statement with the music, which we felt would flatten the complex stories of the people portrayed. Instead, we tried to create a swirl that would draw the viewer into the story and the labyrinthine web of clues, court cases and documents that make up the story.