In that embattled territory, children were watching the Charlie Chaplin film, The Kid. They laughed uproariously. Their parents or older siblings were probably keeping watch on the border with their rifles cocked, but in Rojava, in the area of North Syria occupied by the Kurds, there was a pause in war, and people were building hope.

Who knows for how long?

But something seems to be growing: in that territory half the size of Belgium people are try