Syria

Set in the north of Syria, a village idiot with an enormous nose (Ismail) falls in love with his beautiful neighbor (Salma), thus he sends his handsome friend – who also falls in love with her- to deliver her oral love letters.Read More »

A double wedding in a small village turns to high drama when one bride runs away and the other refuses to go on with her marriage. The drama unveils the fragile balance holding together a family strained by an abusive father now replaced by the successful but corrupt eldest son, a pathologically enraged second son, and the troubles of the youngest son, rendered deaf by a violent blow his father dealt him as a child. Ultimately tragic, the film is rife with biting humor and sharp political critique as it exposes how the violence of arbitrary and absolute power in a patriarchal society seeps into the unit of a family. Stars in Broad Daylight, Ousama Mohammad’s first long feature, remains banned from screening in Syria because of its subversive representation and critical voice. Selected at the «Quinzaine des Réalisateurs» at the Cannes Film Festival in 1988.Read More »

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For many of us, when we first hear the name Mosul City, we immediately think of the brutal reign of the so-called “Islamic State”, of humanitarian crisis, devastation and slow recovery. However, this film tells the story of Mosul beyond these stereotypes, examining the aftermath of war, the environment of the city and its communal places as well as the once thriving energy of the city and its multi-ethnic inhabitants.Read More »

Ma’a al-Fidda (2014) A look at first-hand video accounts of violence in modern-day Syria as filmed by activists in the besieged city of Homs.Read More »

Synopsis: This first film by documentary filmmaker Omar Amiralay follows the construction of a dam on the Euphrates river that is supposed to bring tremendous improvement in the lives of villages around it.Read More »

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The Night or Al-Lail (Arabic: الليل‎) (The Night) is a Syrian feature drama film by director Mohamed Malas. The film explores the Arab-Israeli conflict as seen through the experiences of an Arab family in newly liberated city of Quneitra, headed by a resistance fighter. Al-Lail was the first Syrian feature to be played at the New York Film Festival on October 4, 1993.Read More »

In 2011, Saeed and Milad decide to leave Damascus for Douma (in Eastern Ghouta) to take part in the Syrian revolution. Events move fast: Douma is liberated by the rebels, the revolutionary enthusiasm spreads among the young, then comes war, siege, famine… They filmed life in Douma for more than four years, from the initial euphoria to the distress and disenchantment that settled in over the years.Read More »

In Beirut, Syrian construction workers are building a skyscraper while at the same time their own houses at home are being shelled. The Lebanese war is over but the Syrian one still rages on. The workers are locked in the building site. They are not allowed to leave it after 7p.m. The Lebanese government has imposed night-time curfews on the refugees. The only contact with the outside world for these Syrian workers is the hole through which they climb out in the morning to begin a new day of work. Cut off from their homeland, they gather at night around a small TV set to get the news from Syria. Tormented by anguish and anxiety, while suffering the deprivation of the most basic human and workers right, they keep hoping for a different life.Read More »

A highly controversial and beautifully crafted film on Syria’s dictatorship.
Omar Amiralay’s film about the dictatorship in Syria highlights the devastating effects of 35 years of autocratic Baath party rule on society. Thirty-four years ago, Amiralay was an admirer of the modernisation of his country and even made his first short essay-like documentary in praise of the Baath party’s new-built Euphrates River Dam. Today however, Amiralay regrets the naivety of his youth.Read More »