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For a country that's been at war for the past six years, it may come as a surprise that Syria still has a film industry.
Some of the country's biggest stars are in Australia for the Shaam Syrian Film Festival, being screened in Sydney and Melbourne.
The festival is screening three films, all by the same director, Basil Alkhatib, all focussing on life in war, and all funded by Syria's Ministry of Cultural Affairs.
Last week, fans waited at Melbourne airport to greet the actors, including star Dima Kandalaft.
"From the very first moment, they're welcoming and Australian people have good heart, they're nice people," she told Lateline.
Director Basil Alkhatib maintains that his films are not propaganda pieces.
"The whole films were made during war in Syria and we worked hard in dangerous circumstances," he said.
"The three films talk about the suffering of Syrian women who found themselves in a very complicated and historic positions.
"We believe that these films will be a message for all the world about the reality of what is going on in Syria."
He said the government had no say in the creative process.
"Mostly the script is accepted without any remarks from the Ministry of Culture and when you start shooting no one has anything to do with you," he said.
"All the people think that the Ministry tells you what to do. I have these films and believe me, I made them all with absolute freedom, no one has to do what I'm presenting."
Still, some Syrians living in Australia, including producer and filmmaker Mahar Jamour, are aghast that the film festival is going ahead.
"The regime produced these three movies and all by one director. Have you ever heard a festival by one director?" he asked.
Ali Taleb, another Syrian in Australia, said the films are blatant propaganda.
"They have all the resources, they have the ability to get the visas to do everything, they have a connection on a higher level with different governments," he said.
"Will the Australian Government give visas to the [anti-regime] actresses to show their films here?
"They are showing those films as if the regime are good, the army is being good. They are not — they've been killing people."
But for Dima Kandalaft the films are an accurate portrayal of life in Syria.
She lives in Damascus where she said it is also possible to maintain a sense of normality.
"We don't pretend like nothing is happening, there are a lot of things happening there and it's really painful," she said.
"You want to do something, you want to go on with your career, you want to deliver message, you want to say 'hey, I'm an actress, a Syrian actress, I'm still here, look at me. We can do a lot of things, we still live in Syria, there is life."
Topics: arts-and-entertainment, film-movies, unrest-conflict-and-war, world-politics, syrian-arab-republic, melbourne-3000, vic, sydney-2000, nsw