When Mohammed Kteish was 13, he would walk on to his rooftop in Aleppo each day to spot which buildings had been destroyed. Using paper and glue, he made models of what he could no longer see, incorporating bits of debris he found – spent bullet casings, bomb shells – to recreate the city where he had grown up.
In early 2015 Mohammed’s neighbour, an award-winning journalist called Waad al-Kateab, put him in touch with a UK-based film-maker, Alex Pearson. The film-maker helped the family escape Syria via the well-trodden refugee trail to south-east Turkey, and organised an exhibition for Mohammed’s project – which had been abandoned in the family garage as the situation in Aleppo deteriorated. With initial funding from Pearson, the models – and elements of other cities – were then recreated in a virtual reality (VR) film, Future Aleppo.
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