Until the Buzzing Stops – Feature Documentary in Post-Production

Directed by Abd Alkader Habak, Produced by Janay Boulos

Synopsis:

When Ali is forced to flee Syria, he leaves behind more than a war‑torn homeland. He leaves his family, traditions, and the revolution he believed in. Arriving in London as a refugee, he carries the invisible weight of trauma, memories of arrest, and survivor’s guilt. Though physically safe, he struggles to belong, that reconnects him with home: beekeeping.

Tending to bees gives Ali a quiet sense of purpose. He begins to see a striking connection between refugees and the endangered British black honeybee, both are displaced and fragile, yet deeply resilient. What starts as personal healing grows into Bees & Refugees, a social enterprise Ali establishes to train and employ refugees in beekeeping. Ali sets out to build an urban bee farm in the UK, imagining it as a sanctuary for work, dignity, and community.

For five years, Syrian filmmaker and fellow refugee Habak follows Ali with his camera. As trust grows, their on‑camera conversations become a space of shared reflection. They speak about exile, memory, and the Syria they carry within them. Gradually, the relationship shifts from that of filmmaker and subject to one of friendship. Habak’s presence behind the camera allows Ali’s story to unfold with intimacy, while Ali, in turn, begins asking Habak the same questions about survival, loss, and belonging. Their shared experience of displacement becomes a central thread in the film.

As Bees & Refugees grows, Ali’s vision is tested. Funding is uncertain. Land is hard to secure. Doubt shadows each step forward. He misses his family, whom he has not seen in years, and questions whether what he is building in exile is enough. When the bee farm finally opens, the achievement feels bittersweet. It is a proof of survival, but also a reminder that Syria remains in ruins, and his longing to return has deepened into a need.

When the Assad regime falls, Ali and Habak travel together to Damascus. The journey is emotional and disorienting, taking Ali back into his childhood memories and the physical remnants of loss. He imagines a future lived between London and Syria and begins working toward establishing a new bee farm, seed bank, and community garden in Damascus. But Syria is no longer the place he remembers. Political uncertainty, unresolved transitional justice, and dislocation complicate the possibility of return. The journey reframes Ali’s search, shifting it from return to healing, and from reclaiming what was lost to discovering how, and where, life can be rebuilt. Can healing ever be complete after exile, and how do you begin rebuilding a life when home exists in more than one place?

Shot in intimate verité, Until the Buzzing Stops blends observational storytelling with poetic imagery of bees. Sound design weaves the hum of hives with echoes of conflict, connecting nature’s rhythm to memory and loss. The film is a meditation on healing, purpose, and rebuilding, asking what it means to return home, and whether belonging is found in a place, or practiced through care, work, and connection.