Name: Birds of War - Screening at MAGNT
Start: 2026-06-18T19:00:00+09:30
Location: Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory

DIFF 2026 is just around the corner, and our Programming Committee is already scouring the globe for the very best local, national and international cinema to bring to Darwin audiences.
But why wait until September? We’re bringing the festival spirit forward with a special one-night-only screening on June 18. The perfect taste of what’s to come.
Book your tickets now and join us for this exclusive event, then save the date for the full Program Launch on August 10. We can’t wait to share what’s in store.
The Saltwater @ Bundilla bar will be open from 5:45pm.
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BIRDS OF WAR follows London-based Lebanese journalist, Janay, and Syrian activist Habak over 13 years, using personal archives to tell a love story across war, revolutions and exile.
Young BBC reporter Janay Boulos first contacts Syrian cameraman Abd Alkader Habak (“Habak”) for footage during the final months of the four-year battle for Aleppo in 2016, one of the bloodiest and most decisive turning points in Syria’s brutal civil war.
Their professional relationship deepens as Janay discovers more about the extraordinary young man documenting the violence for her reports. Through texts, video exchanges, voice messages, and shared moments from afar, the bond between them strengthens, while at the same time Habak’s world becomes increasingly perilous amid chemical attacks and continuous bombardment.
When an act of compassion puts Habak in danger and he is forced to flee Syria, he and Janay’s relationship enters a new phase: for the first time, they meet in person, in Turkey. Distance, war, cultural differences and familial judgements temporarily fade as the two wrap themselves in a cocoon of safety, away from the terror back home.
Still, they are never far from the question that would soon enough come to haunt them: Would it be possible for two people from such disparate worlds to build a life together?
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Viewer advice:
This film contains strobe effects.
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Strictly no food or drink permitted in the MAGNT theatrette.