The Shell tells the story of a young Syrian — “Musa” — who, after studying film in Paris, returns to Syria and is arrested at the airport. He is mistaken for a radical Islamist when in fact he is Christian‑raised and an atheist. As a result, he is detained without trial and spends more than a decade in brutal custody in some of Syria’s most notorious prisons (notably Tadmur Prison) under harsh and dehumanizing conditions.