For the 41-year-old brothers, returning to their flat is bittersweet. Their apartment was more than just a home. It was once a stage, a space where they performed original theatre plays away from the watchful eye of the Bashar al-Assad regime
Thick layers of dust shimmer in sunlight as Mohamad and Ahmad Malas sift through old belongings in their Damascus apartment, abandoned for 14 years.
The air inside is heavy with a scent of old wood. With every step the brothers make, the floor creaks. Chairs, couches and chandeliers in the living room are cloaked in dust, and on one of the walls portraits of their father and one of their brothers, who have died, hang frozen in time. There’s no electricity so they use their phone torches to light their way as they collect personal artefacts they long forgot about.
Mohamad goes through their belongings in Damascus in January, finding a box containing his love letters and memories collected from when he was young.
