Birds of War UK Release: Critics Call It One of 2026’s Most Acclaimed Documentaries

Birds of War UK Release: Critics Call It One of 2026’s Most Acclaimed Documentaries

Filmlovers in the UK finally have a chance to watch the critically acclaimed Birds of War, after watching it sweep awards over the past year. On the festival circuit, Birds of War won several awards, including the World Cinema Documentary Special Jury Award for Journalistic Impact at the Sundance Film Festival, where it also had its world premiere. It opened in cinemas across the UK on July 3rd, and critics reviewing Birds of War in the UK have been near-unanimous in their praise.

This is an exceptionally powerful film, encompassing displacement, exile, revolutions and a pair of cats named Couscous and Fashfash.
Wendy Ide The Observer
There is no better reminder of the simple power of love and hope than Birds of War.
Dave Giannini Geek Vibes Nation

What starts out as a working relationship between Lebanese, London-based journalist Janay Boulos and Syrian war photographer Abd Alkader Habak in Aleppo blossoms into a friendship, and then, love, all set against the backdrop of the Syrian Civil War, and the succeeding efforts at immigration.

Birds of War is told almost entirely through footage and communication between the couple spanning 13 years. Now married, and also the film’s co-directors, Boulos and Habak turned their own archive of texts, voice notes and on-the-ground footage into the film itself.

Angus Reid of Morning Star calls it ‘a love letter by a couple to themselves, written in video’. 

As Danny Leigh of Financial Times puts it, ‘in just 85 minutes, the film already captures the fraught complexity of the Middle East — and the wonder of the human heart’.

Details about screenings can be found on the film’s website

A touching way to frame their blossoming love story without erasing the wider context in which it unfolds.
Alex Denney AnOther
‘The film powerfully depicts how physical safety can feel like a prison when your mind is constantly consumed by fear for the people you love. This is an eye-opening look into a terrifying reality that most of the world is privileged enough to ignore. It alters our understanding of modern resistance, showing that in the digital age, love itself can be the most radical act of defiance’.
Anna Menzies Little White Lies
You’d need to be made of cynical stuff not to applaud the resilience and idealism on show here. The relative simplicity of the couple’s story belies the extraordinary context in its backdrop.
Hilary White Irish Independent
Unsettling, complex, entirely real and immaculately edited, this is highly recommended.
Angus Reid Morning Star
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