As the number of Syrian refugees in Turkey creeps towards nearly 2 million, their individual stories are often lost in the framing of the refugee crisis as a nondescript mass moving from the Middle East into Europe. In this short film from Freewheel Stories, A Syrian Story About the Future, we hear from Syrians themselves who are situated in Istanbul for the interim, attempting to make sense of their exile and nebulous future. "We are forced to be here," says one young girl. "If I had the chance to go back to Syria I would love to, but we can't." This film is a humanizing and necessary look at how refugees themselves navigate the loss of land and home as a result of conflict.

Freewheel Stories is made up of two filmmakers from Amsterdam who are cycling around the world in search of stories. Unaware, they found themselves along the route that Syrian refugees take to get into Europe from Istanbul. For more information about how they uncovered these stories, read their blog post about it.

Via Daniel Lombroso