The Hamas invasion of southern Israel on Saturday by hundreds of terrorists from the Gaza Strip is a Pearl Harbor moment for the State of Israel. This attack, that led to the murder of more than 250 Israelis and the abduction of dozens more, will change the equation and the way Israel manages its conflict with the Hamas rulers in Gaza. What was, will no longer be.
Like Pearl Harbor, Israel was taken completely by surprise when hundreds of Hamas terrorists – armed to the teeth – blew holes in the sophisticated security...
Like Pearl Harbor, Israel was taken completely by surprise when hundreds of Hamas terrorists – armed to the teeth – blew holes in the sophisticated security...
- 10/7/2023
- by Yaakov Katz
- Rollingstone.com
In August 2021, the fall of Kabul was seen in news coverage taking place in real time, as the Taliban took hold of Afghanistan’s capital only a few days after the American armed forces pulled out of the country following a two-decade-long presence. After 20 years of hard-won gains, under Taliban rule, women in the country were almost immediately barred from education after the sixth grade, could not leave their homes without a male chaperone and were barred from working.
Afghan filmmaker Sahra Mani had left her home a few days prior to Kabul’s collapse to attend a film festival in Europe. Unbeknownst to her, she would not return. “I never thought, ‘This will be the last time I pack my suitcase and close my door,’” says Mani, who is currently living in France. “Even now I don’t remember if I closed my window properly or not.”
Like many in the West,...
Afghan filmmaker Sahra Mani had left her home a few days prior to Kabul’s collapse to attend a film festival in Europe. Unbeknownst to her, she would not return. “I never thought, ‘This will be the last time I pack my suitcase and close my door,’” says Mani, who is currently living in France. “Even now I don’t remember if I closed my window properly or not.”
Like many in the West,...
- 5/20/2023
- by Mia Galuppo
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
It is surreal to even imagine the direction our world is headed in. On the one hand, we have wars being waged with powerful nations pulling the strings for their personal benefits by citing political reasons that are resulting in the deaths of thousands and the displacement of even more; on the other hand, we have companies racing against each other to develop artificial intelligence that poses a threat that has the potential to change the way we perceive our lives and even control them. In Episode 1 of Season 10 of Vice, we see an example of both.
Spoilers Ahead
The Hell That Is Syria
The Turkish-Syrian border region was hit by two high-magnitude earthquakes in February this year. In the aftermath of the 2017 peaceful protest that was squashed by President Bashar al-Assad’s forces, a civil war has ensued between his forces and opposition groups and rebels (Isis and Al-Qaeda included), which continues today.
Spoilers Ahead
The Hell That Is Syria
The Turkish-Syrian border region was hit by two high-magnitude earthquakes in February this year. In the aftermath of the 2017 peaceful protest that was squashed by President Bashar al-Assad’s forces, a civil war has ensued between his forces and opposition groups and rebels (Isis and Al-Qaeda included), which continues today.
- 5/10/2023
- by Shubhabrata Dutta
- Film Fugitives
The sensation of a nation crumbling from within — not in slo-mo deterioration, but amid the chaos of widespread violence and political upheaval — is unimaginable to most people. Yet it’s something many will live to experience. Offering a primer of sorts in that grim prospect is “5 Seasons of Revolution.” Made by the pseudonymous Lina, this very first-person documentary doesn’t offer a lot of explanatory background or big-picture commentary on Syria’s still-ongoing civil war. But in charting the filmmaker’s attempts at reportage alongside the fates of her imperiled group of friends between 2011-15, it provides one vivid perspective on a whole country in freefall.
At that timespan’s beginning, the pro-democracy protests of the Arab Spring reach our English-language narrator’s homeland, where she’s an aspiring video journalist. Her likewise twentysomething close associates, introduced at the start here, are fellow journalists, social workers, activists. All grew up...
At that timespan’s beginning, the pro-democracy protests of the Arab Spring reach our English-language narrator’s homeland, where she’s an aspiring video journalist. Her likewise twentysomething close associates, introduced at the start here, are fellow journalists, social workers, activists. All grew up...
- 5/4/2023
- by Dennis Harvey
- Variety Film + TV
The prestigious Visions du Réel film festival in Nyon, Switzerland wraps up this weekend, after hosting the world premiere of dozens of documentaries.
One of those world premieres, the feature documentary Amany, Behind the Lines, centers on Amany Al-Ali, considered to be the first female cartoonist in Idlib, Syria. Her city became a hotbed of protest against the regime of Bashar al-Assad beginning in 2011 in the midst of the Arab Spring and, despite enormous risk, Al-Ali has used her cartooning skill to critique the chaotic developments in Idlib for a dozen years now.
Alisar Hasan and Alaa Amer directed the 73-minute long feature documentary.
Cartoonist Amany Al-Ali
Amany Al-Ali “draws the life of her town, a bastion of jihadist groups that are attempting to overthrow President Assad since 2011,” the Visions du Réel program notes. “Armed with her pen, she is struggling against Islamist authority and traditional patriarchy. But for how...
One of those world premieres, the feature documentary Amany, Behind the Lines, centers on Amany Al-Ali, considered to be the first female cartoonist in Idlib, Syria. Her city became a hotbed of protest against the regime of Bashar al-Assad beginning in 2011 in the midst of the Arab Spring and, despite enormous risk, Al-Ali has used her cartooning skill to critique the chaotic developments in Idlib for a dozen years now.
Alisar Hasan and Alaa Amer directed the 73-minute long feature documentary.
Cartoonist Amany Al-Ali
Amany Al-Ali “draws the life of her town, a bastion of jihadist groups that are attempting to overthrow President Assad since 2011,” the Visions du Réel program notes. “Armed with her pen, she is struggling against Islamist authority and traditional patriarchy. But for how...
- 4/29/2023
- by Matthew Carey
- Deadline Film + TV
After a great success of their short film “Mare Nostrum” (2016) which bagged 36 awards internationally, Syrian directors Rana Kazkaz and Anas Khalaf unite again, this time for their long-feature debut “The Translator” which celebrates its world premiere in the First Feature Competition of PÖFF (Tallinn Black Nights).
“The Translator” is screening at Vesoul International Film Festival of Asian Cinema
The brilliant Ziad Bakri of “Mare Nostrum” is the titular character Sami Najjar, a man whose calm life in Australia comes to an end when his brother Zaid gets arrested by Bashar al-Assad’s regime in Damascus. With scary prospects of losing his third close family member after mother and father, Sami makes a dangerous decision of flying over to Syria. He is known and not welcome back due an incident he was responsible for, and the trip needs a careful preparation involving crossing the border in an unorthodox way.
The...
“The Translator” is screening at Vesoul International Film Festival of Asian Cinema
The brilliant Ziad Bakri of “Mare Nostrum” is the titular character Sami Najjar, a man whose calm life in Australia comes to an end when his brother Zaid gets arrested by Bashar al-Assad’s regime in Damascus. With scary prospects of losing his third close family member after mother and father, Sami makes a dangerous decision of flying over to Syria. He is known and not welcome back due an incident he was responsible for, and the trip needs a careful preparation involving crossing the border in an unorthodox way.
The...
- 3/4/2023
- by Marina D. Richter
- AsianMoviePulse
Though the world watched — often in silence — as a decade-long civil war tore Syria apart, exiled filmmakers Talal Derki (“Of Fathers and Sons”) and Heba Khaled say an equally brutal but less visible war is still raging.
In “Under the Sky of Damascus,” which premieres Feb. 20 in the Panorama strand of the Berlin Film Festival, the duo shifts the lens to the silenced majority of Syrian women who routinely face sexual harassment, violence and abuse in their patriarchal society.
The film follows a tight-knit group of young Syrian women who embark upon on a radical project to produce a play that lays bare the culture of misogyny and sexual abuse that has blighted the lives of females in their country for generations.
Fanning out across the war-weary Syrian capital, they record testimonies from actresses to factory workers to stay-at-home mothers, revealing how women from across Syrian society share the same harrowing tales of abuse,...
In “Under the Sky of Damascus,” which premieres Feb. 20 in the Panorama strand of the Berlin Film Festival, the duo shifts the lens to the silenced majority of Syrian women who routinely face sexual harassment, violence and abuse in their patriarchal society.
The film follows a tight-knit group of young Syrian women who embark upon on a radical project to produce a play that lays bare the culture of misogyny and sexual abuse that has blighted the lives of females in their country for generations.
Fanning out across the war-weary Syrian capital, they record testimonies from actresses to factory workers to stay-at-home mothers, revealing how women from across Syrian society share the same harrowing tales of abuse,...
- 2/20/2023
- by Christopher Vourlias
- Variety Film + TV
It’s been 12 years since the Syrian Civil War began, fracturing the region and contributing to the devastating global migration and refugee crisis. The Arab Spring of 2011 was an initially hopeful time for Syrians, filled with dynamic, peaceful protests against the corrupt regime of President Bashar al-Assad. When Syrian journalist Lina (who goes by this alias to protect her security) started documenting what was then still called a “revolution,” she and her friends believed that it wouldn’t last long. And when state forces began attacking and jailing protesters, they still thought it couldn’t get any worse.
Filmed between 2011-2015, the footage is rough and impressionistic, often making it difficult to get your bearings. Sometimes Lina records from the inside of her bag, her hand partially covering the lens so as not to be detected by the police. Her material is unpolished and incomplete, far from the kind of...
Filmed between 2011-2015, the footage is rough and impressionistic, often making it difficult to get your bearings. Sometimes Lina records from the inside of her bag, her hand partially covering the lens so as not to be detected by the police. Her material is unpolished and incomplete, far from the kind of...
- 1/28/2023
- by Susannah Gruder
- Indiewire
Images of revolution tend to resemble one another over time: mass street protests, crackdowns by riot police, unarmed protestors risking their lives against the powers-that-be. We’ve seen most of them before, and yet each time we come across them they captivate us anew.
In the Syrian documentary 5 Seasons of Revolution, some of those familiar images appear, but they’re combined with something we haven’t really seen before: lots of shots of young reporters and protesters sitting around apartments on their phones or computers, making the revolution happen online when they can’t make it happen in the streets.
This is what Revolution 2.0 looks like, and it helped fuel the Arab Spring protests that swept through North Africa and the Middle East over a decade ago, reaching Syria in 2011. The response to the movement was a massive repression by President Bashar al-Assad that lead to a devastating and ongoing civil war,...
In the Syrian documentary 5 Seasons of Revolution, some of those familiar images appear, but they’re combined with something we haven’t really seen before: lots of shots of young reporters and protesters sitting around apartments on their phones or computers, making the revolution happen online when they can’t make it happen in the streets.
This is what Revolution 2.0 looks like, and it helped fuel the Arab Spring protests that swept through North Africa and the Middle East over a decade ago, reaching Syria in 2011. The response to the movement was a massive repression by President Bashar al-Assad that lead to a devastating and ongoing civil war,...
- 1/22/2023
- by Jordan Mintzer
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Pioneering TV journalist Barbara Walters died at the age of 93 on Friday.
A cause of death was not provided.
“Barbara Walters passed away peacefully in her home surrounded by loved ones. She lived her life with no regrets. She was a trailblazer not only for female journalists, but for all women,” Cindi Berger, a representative for Walters, said in a statement.
In Memoriam 2022: 100 Great Celebrities Who Died This Year!
Walters was a recognized face on American television for more than 50 years, interviewing every president and first lady from Richard Nixon to Barack Obama as well as countless celebrities and world leaders.
Her highlights include her 1999 interview with Monica Lewinsky, which was viewed by 48.5 million viewers, and a 1997 joint session with Egypt’s Anwar Sadat and Israel’s Menachem Begin. In December 2011, she asked Syria’s President Bashar al Assad about his brutal acts of retaliation against protesters.
She began...
A cause of death was not provided.
“Barbara Walters passed away peacefully in her home surrounded by loved ones. She lived her life with no regrets. She was a trailblazer not only for female journalists, but for all women,” Cindi Berger, a representative for Walters, said in a statement.
In Memoriam 2022: 100 Great Celebrities Who Died This Year!
Walters was a recognized face on American television for more than 50 years, interviewing every president and first lady from Richard Nixon to Barack Obama as well as countless celebrities and world leaders.
Her highlights include her 1999 interview with Monica Lewinsky, which was viewed by 48.5 million viewers, and a 1997 joint session with Egypt’s Anwar Sadat and Israel’s Menachem Begin. In December 2011, she asked Syria’s President Bashar al Assad about his brutal acts of retaliation against protesters.
She began...
- 1/2/2023
- by Alex Nguyen
- Uinterview
Click here to read the full article.
When Barbara Walters interviewed Monica Lewinsky for that special episode of 20/20 back in 1999, a total of 74 million Americans tuned in to ABC to watch.
Seventy four million. That was one quarter of the entire U.S. population at the time. The interview averaged a 48 share, meaning that nearly half of all TV sets in use at the time were watching Walters.
By now much has been written about Walters’ groundbreaking career at NBC and ABC, in the mornings on Today and in the evenings on the ABC Evening News. She changed how TV news anchors were paid (today’s 8-figure deals would not exist had Walters not paved the way) and transformed daytime TV with The View.
But the news anchor, who died Friday at the age of 93, also fundamentally changed a core piece of the TV journalism repertoire: The interview.
Walters took...
When Barbara Walters interviewed Monica Lewinsky for that special episode of 20/20 back in 1999, a total of 74 million Americans tuned in to ABC to watch.
Seventy four million. That was one quarter of the entire U.S. population at the time. The interview averaged a 48 share, meaning that nearly half of all TV sets in use at the time were watching Walters.
By now much has been written about Walters’ groundbreaking career at NBC and ABC, in the mornings on Today and in the evenings on the ABC Evening News. She changed how TV news anchors were paid (today’s 8-figure deals would not exist had Walters not paved the way) and transformed daytime TV with The View.
But the news anchor, who died Friday at the age of 93, also fundamentally changed a core piece of the TV journalism repertoire: The interview.
Walters took...
- 12/31/2022
- by Alex Weprin
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Barbara Walters, the Emmy-winning pioneering journalist who paved the way for decades of women journalists in broadcast TV, died on Friday. She was 93.
“Barbara Walters, who shattered the glass ceiling and became a dominant force in an industry once dominated by men, has died,” tweeted ABC News Friday. Walters worked for ABC from 1976 to her retirement in 2014.
Breaking: Barbara Walters, who shattered the glass ceiling and became a dominant force in an industry once dominated by men, has died. She was 93. https://t.co/tydwREgTb2 pic.twitter.com/b4jOEHVYFE
— ABC News (@ABC) December 31, 2022
Walters got her start as a writer and segment producer on NBC’s “The Today Show.” By 1974, she became a co-host of the show — and two years later was named the first woman to co-anchor a network’s evening news show when she joined Harry Reasoner on “ABC Evening News.”
From 1979 to 2004, Walters co-hosted and produced...
“Barbara Walters, who shattered the glass ceiling and became a dominant force in an industry once dominated by men, has died,” tweeted ABC News Friday. Walters worked for ABC from 1976 to her retirement in 2014.
Breaking: Barbara Walters, who shattered the glass ceiling and became a dominant force in an industry once dominated by men, has died. She was 93. https://t.co/tydwREgTb2 pic.twitter.com/b4jOEHVYFE
— ABC News (@ABC) December 31, 2022
Walters got her start as a writer and segment producer on NBC’s “The Today Show.” By 1974, she became a co-host of the show — and two years later was named the first woman to co-anchor a network’s evening news show when she joined Harry Reasoner on “ABC Evening News.”
From 1979 to 2004, Walters co-hosted and produced...
- 12/31/2022
- by Jethro Nededog and Thom Geier
- The Wrap
Ehab Tarabieh studied Classic Violin at the Damascus Higher Institute for Music and Film in Jerusalem. For the past decade, Ehab has been in charge of the video department at B’Tselem, documenting human rights violations in occupied Palestine. His previous short films have won numerous prizes, including Best Short Film at Doha Tribeca Festival for The Forgotten and a nomination for a European academy award for Smile and the World will Smile Back. Of Land and Bread was Ehab’s feature documentary debut that celebrated its world premiere at IDFA. The Taste of Apples is Red is his first feature length film.
On the occasion of “The Taste of Apples is Red” screening at Thessaloniki International Film Festival, we speak with him about the Druze society, living in the Golan Heights, the place of women in the Middle East, goats and dogs, and many other topics.
“The...
On the occasion of “The Taste of Apples is Red” screening at Thessaloniki International Film Festival, we speak with him about the Druze society, living in the Golan Heights, the place of women in the Middle East, goats and dogs, and many other topics.
“The...
- 11/21/2022
- by Panos Kotzathanasis
- AsianMoviePulse
Tulsi Gabbard, the former congresswoman who recently announced that she has left the Democratic party, is joining Fox News as a paid contributor.
A Fox News spokeswoman confirmed the hire, first reported by the Los Angeles Times.
Gabbard filled in for Tucker Carlson on his primetime show on Monday night. She also has been a guest on his show and other Fox News programming.
Gabbard ran for Democratic presidential nomination in the 2020 cycle, forgoing a run for reelection for a Hawaii congressional seat. She’s been critical of the party for being “an elitist cabal of warmongers.” Last month, Sean Hannity pressed her on whether she supports aid to Ukraine in the midst of the Russian invasion last February. Gabbard also met with Syrian president Bashar al-Assad in 2017, which drew criticism as the U.S. had no diplomatic relations with the leader, who other lawmakers called a war criminal.
Gabbard...
A Fox News spokeswoman confirmed the hire, first reported by the Los Angeles Times.
Gabbard filled in for Tucker Carlson on his primetime show on Monday night. She also has been a guest on his show and other Fox News programming.
Gabbard ran for Democratic presidential nomination in the 2020 cycle, forgoing a run for reelection for a Hawaii congressional seat. She’s been critical of the party for being “an elitist cabal of warmongers.” Last month, Sean Hannity pressed her on whether she supports aid to Ukraine in the midst of the Russian invasion last February. Gabbard also met with Syrian president Bashar al-Assad in 2017, which drew criticism as the U.S. had no diplomatic relations with the leader, who other lawmakers called a war criminal.
Gabbard...
- 11/15/2022
- by Ted Johnson
- Deadline Film + TV
In “The Taste of Apples Is Red,” Syrian director Ehab Tarabieh tells an enchanted tale of religion, war, family and unforgotten sins of a distant past.
As a native of the occupied Golan Heights and an opponent of Bashar al-Assad’s regime, Tarabieh was eager to make a film about what was happening in Syria. A member of the minority Druze community, Tarabieh also had insights into a religion that has as its central pillar the belief in reincarnation. Bringing together these elements, infused with magical realism, he has created a story about family, faith and the absurdity of living under Israeli occupation next to a raging war just beyond the border.
A fan of Guillermo del Toro as well as of Studio Ghibli, Tarabieh says, “It’s about imagination. When you put imagination into something, you force the viewer to think.”
“What happened in Syria is so absurd. No...
As a native of the occupied Golan Heights and an opponent of Bashar al-Assad’s regime, Tarabieh was eager to make a film about what was happening in Syria. A member of the minority Druze community, Tarabieh also had insights into a religion that has as its central pillar the belief in reincarnation. Bringing together these elements, infused with magical realism, he has created a story about family, faith and the absurdity of living under Israeli occupation next to a raging war just beyond the border.
A fan of Guillermo del Toro as well as of Studio Ghibli, Tarabieh says, “It’s about imagination. When you put imagination into something, you force the viewer to think.”
“What happened in Syria is so absurd. No...
- 11/15/2022
- by Ed Meza
- Variety Film + TV
The doc fest s hosting a debate to ask: ’What gender is a festival?
The 35th edition of International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam (IDFA) is opening today (November 9) with the world premiere of Niki Padidar’s All You See.
Laura Poitras is the 2022 guest of honour and the subject of the 2022 retrospective in which all seven of her films will be shown. She has also curated 10 films and will be in conversation with selected filmmakers in the festival’s public programme. Poitras will also give a masterclass and discuss her Golden Lion-winning awards contender All The Beauty And The Bloodshed,...
The 35th edition of International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam (IDFA) is opening today (November 9) with the world premiere of Niki Padidar’s All You See.
Laura Poitras is the 2022 guest of honour and the subject of the 2022 retrospective in which all seven of her films will be shown. She has also curated 10 films and will be in conversation with selected filmmakers in the festival’s public programme. Poitras will also give a masterclass and discuss her Golden Lion-winning awards contender All The Beauty And The Bloodshed,...
- 11/9/2022
- by Geoffrey Macnab
- ScreenDaily
The doc fest s hosting a debate to ask: ’What gender is a festival?
The 35th edition of International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam (IDFA) is opening today (November 9) with the world premiere of Niki Padidar’s All You See.
Laura Poitras is the 2022 guest of honour and the subject of the 2022 retrospective in which all seven of her films will be shown. She has also curated 10 films and will be in conversation with selected filmmakers in the festival’s public programme. Poitras will also give a masterclass and discuss her Golden Lion-winning awards contender All The Beauty And The Bloodshed,...
The 35th edition of International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam (IDFA) is opening today (November 9) with the world premiere of Niki Padidar’s All You See.
Laura Poitras is the 2022 guest of honour and the subject of the 2022 retrospective in which all seven of her films will be shown. She has also curated 10 films and will be in conversation with selected filmmakers in the festival’s public programme. Poitras will also give a masterclass and discuss her Golden Lion-winning awards contender All The Beauty And The Bloodshed,...
- 11/9/2022
- by Geoffrey Macnab
- ScreenDaily
Although there hasn’t been any official word put out, British psychedelic rock band ‘Pink Floyd’ have been shopping their recorded-music catalogue and other assets for several months, seeking as much as 500 million, according to the Financial Times, with both major music companies and investment firms as the top bidders.
But sources say that an explosive new interview with founding member, main songwriter and stakeholder Roger Waters – in which he makes extensive remarks about Israel, Ukraine, Russia, the U.S. and other political matters that one could politely characterise as controversial – is giving at least one potential buyer cold feet and seems likely to lead others to rethink their positions, reports Variety.
For years, Waters has sounded off about politics in the press and at his concerts, most controversially Israel’s policies. But the new interview in Rolling Stone raises (or lowers) the bar considerably.
During the interview, the former...
But sources say that an explosive new interview with founding member, main songwriter and stakeholder Roger Waters – in which he makes extensive remarks about Israel, Ukraine, Russia, the U.S. and other political matters that one could politely characterise as controversial – is giving at least one potential buyer cold feet and seems likely to lead others to rethink their positions, reports Variety.
For years, Waters has sounded off about politics in the press and at his concerts, most controversially Israel’s policies. But the new interview in Rolling Stone raises (or lowers) the bar considerably.
During the interview, the former...
- 10/5/2022
- by Glamsham Bureau
- GlamSham
Roger Waters does not want you to ignore his politics. The 79-year-old’s This Is Not A Drill Tour opens with Waters imitating a plummy British announcer and telling the audience: “If you’re one of those ‘I love Pink Floyd but I can’t stand Roger’s politics’ people, you might do well to fuck off to the bar, right now. Thank you, and please enjoy the show.”
Waters certainly has a lot of politics. He is a vocal supporter of a free Palestine and Black Lives Matter, and...
Waters certainly has a lot of politics. He is a vocal supporter of a free Palestine and Black Lives Matter, and...
- 10/4/2022
- by James Ball
- Rollingstone.com
At the end of “The Swimmers,” you could be excused for thinking that Syrian refugee Yusra Mardini won an Olympic gold medal. She didn’t. That’s not to detract from everything she and her older sister, Sara, went through to escape the Syrian civil war and reclaim their dreams of competitive swimming. It just means that director Sally El Hosaini and co-writer Jack Thorne didn’t know how else to wrap this inspirational true story, which is ideally suited for one of those 40-minute Oscar-grubbing documentary shorts, in their feel-good Toronto Film Fest opener.
At a bloated 134 minutes, however, your brain may well start to prune, the way fingers do when they spend too much time in water. It’s not enough that co-leads (and real-life sisters) Nathalie and Manal Issa have great chemistry on-screen, or that the plot packs some of the same oomph as last year’s “Flee.
At a bloated 134 minutes, however, your brain may well start to prune, the way fingers do when they spend too much time in water. It’s not enough that co-leads (and real-life sisters) Nathalie and Manal Issa have great chemistry on-screen, or that the plot packs some of the same oomph as last year’s “Flee.
- 9/9/2022
- by Peter Debruge
- Variety Film + TV
Click here to read the full article.
Dror Moreh, the Oscar-nominated director of The Gatekeepers and another doc about the Middle East, The Human Factor, broadens his scope productively in his new documentary, The Corridors of Power, which had its world premiere screenings in Telluride. Doreh assembled an impressive array of diplomats from several administrations over the past 40 years, and he comes up with a deeply disturbing examination of genocide during recent decades.
The film opens by recalling the Nazi genocide of the Jews, with a reminder of how little the United States did to try and halt the slaughter. After the war ended and the United Nations was formed, the cry of “Never again!” echoed throughout the world. Given the dark side of human nature, that was always an optimistic credo, but people probably did not realize how many horrific instances of genocide would emerge in the decades that followed,...
Dror Moreh, the Oscar-nominated director of The Gatekeepers and another doc about the Middle East, The Human Factor, broadens his scope productively in his new documentary, The Corridors of Power, which had its world premiere screenings in Telluride. Doreh assembled an impressive array of diplomats from several administrations over the past 40 years, and he comes up with a deeply disturbing examination of genocide during recent decades.
The film opens by recalling the Nazi genocide of the Jews, with a reminder of how little the United States did to try and halt the slaughter. After the war ended and the United Nations was formed, the cry of “Never again!” echoed throughout the world. Given the dark side of human nature, that was always an optimistic credo, but people probably did not realize how many horrific instances of genocide would emerge in the decades that followed,...
- 9/7/2022
- by Stephen Farber
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
First published May 14th, 2022, on Substack and Patreon.
Don’t spend hours scrolling the menus at Netflix, Amazon Prime, and other movie services. I point you to the best new films and hidden gems to stream.
Movies included here may be available on services other than those mentioned, and in other regions, too. JustWatch and Reelgood are great for finding which films are on what streamers; you can customize each site so that it shows you only those services you have access to.
When you rent or purchase a film through the Amazon and Apple links here, I get a small affiliate fee that helps support my work. Please use them if you can! (Affiliate fees do not increase your cost.)
both sides of the pond
Whether any of us have actually gotten used to the idea of paying 20/£16 (or more) to stream a hot new movie at home is debatable.
Don’t spend hours scrolling the menus at Netflix, Amazon Prime, and other movie services. I point you to the best new films and hidden gems to stream.
Movies included here may be available on services other than those mentioned, and in other regions, too. JustWatch and Reelgood are great for finding which films are on what streamers; you can customize each site so that it shows you only those services you have access to.
When you rent or purchase a film through the Amazon and Apple links here, I get a small affiliate fee that helps support my work. Please use them if you can! (Affiliate fees do not increase your cost.)
both sides of the pond
Whether any of us have actually gotten used to the idea of paying 20/£16 (or more) to stream a hot new movie at home is debatable.
- 6/14/2022
- by MaryAnn Johanson
- www.flickfilosopher.com
First published April 30th, 2022, on Substack and Patreon.
Don’t spend hours scrolling the menus at Netflix, Amazon Prime, and other movie services. I point you to the best new films and hidden gems to stream.
Movies included here may be available on services other than those mentioned, and in other regions, too. JustWatch and Reelgood are great for finding which films are on what streamers; you can customize each site so that it shows you only those services you have access to.
When you rent or purchase a film through the Amazon and Apple links here, I get a small affiliate fee that helps support my work. Please use them if you can! (Affiliate fees do not increase your cost.)
both sides of the pond
It’s four extraordinary actors in a room. On one side of the table are Jason Isaacs and Martha Plimpton, as parents of a dead child.
Don’t spend hours scrolling the menus at Netflix, Amazon Prime, and other movie services. I point you to the best new films and hidden gems to stream.
Movies included here may be available on services other than those mentioned, and in other regions, too. JustWatch and Reelgood are great for finding which films are on what streamers; you can customize each site so that it shows you only those services you have access to.
When you rent or purchase a film through the Amazon and Apple links here, I get a small affiliate fee that helps support my work. Please use them if you can! (Affiliate fees do not increase your cost.)
both sides of the pond
It’s four extraordinary actors in a room. On one side of the table are Jason Isaacs and Martha Plimpton, as parents of a dead child.
- 5/29/2022
- by MaryAnn Johanson
- www.flickfilosopher.com
Documentaries about the conflict in Ukraine, the Cuban migrant situation and the Palestinian refugee crisis were among top winners at MiradasDoc, Spain’s foremost documentary film festival which wrapped its 15th edition on March 12.
Based in Tenerife, Canary Islands, the festival was an in-person event running March 4-12, while its market (March 8-11) remained virtual for the second consecutive year.
The best international documentary prize went to “Option Zero” (“La Opcion Cero”) by Cuban filmmaker Marcel Beltran while the best debut feature award was extended to “Trenches” by French journalist Loup Bureau who has covered the Arab Spring in Egypt, the Syrian War and the Russian-Ukrainian conflict in the Donbas region.
“Trenches” follows the intrepid young men and women who are fighting Russian-backed separatists in Ukraine’s Donbas region. In a video message sent to the festival, Bureau said: “The situation now in Ukraine is still catastrophic and I’ve...
Based in Tenerife, Canary Islands, the festival was an in-person event running March 4-12, while its market (March 8-11) remained virtual for the second consecutive year.
The best international documentary prize went to “Option Zero” (“La Opcion Cero”) by Cuban filmmaker Marcel Beltran while the best debut feature award was extended to “Trenches” by French journalist Loup Bureau who has covered the Arab Spring in Egypt, the Syrian War and the Russian-Ukrainian conflict in the Donbas region.
“Trenches” follows the intrepid young men and women who are fighting Russian-backed separatists in Ukraine’s Donbas region. In a video message sent to the festival, Bureau said: “The situation now in Ukraine is still catastrophic and I’ve...
- 3/13/2022
- by Anna Marie de la Fuente
- Variety Film + TV
At home in Studio City, California, filmmaker Evgeny Afineevsky carefully unfolds a blue and white Ukrainian flag. The once bright hues are darkened with soot, the fabric frayed at the edges.
The banner sustained those battle scars in 2014 as it flew over Maidan Square in Kyiv, in the midst of a revolution to oust a pro-Russian leader and to reestablish Ukraine as a true democratic republic. Afineevsky was on hand as the drama unfolded, documenting it for his Oscar-nominated film Winter on Fire: Ukraine’s Fight for Freedom. As Ukraine attempts to stave off a Russian attack on the country, he says the invaders will learn how attached Ukrainians have become to liberty in the past eight years.
“These people will not be slaves. They will not go back into the former Soviet Union,” Afineevsky insists. “They have a taste of freedom. They became a part of the European society, and...
The banner sustained those battle scars in 2014 as it flew over Maidan Square in Kyiv, in the midst of a revolution to oust a pro-Russian leader and to reestablish Ukraine as a true democratic republic. Afineevsky was on hand as the drama unfolded, documenting it for his Oscar-nominated film Winter on Fire: Ukraine’s Fight for Freedom. As Ukraine attempts to stave off a Russian attack on the country, he says the invaders will learn how attached Ukrainians have become to liberty in the past eight years.
“These people will not be slaves. They will not go back into the former Soviet Union,” Afineevsky insists. “They have a taste of freedom. They became a part of the European society, and...
- 2/28/2022
- by Matthew Carey
- Deadline Film + TV
Ameenah Sawwan was up late on Aug. 21, 2013, scrolling through Facebook on her phone, when she saw the first report that a town not far from hers had been hit by a chemical attack. She watched footage from Eastern Ghouta, then saw another post that said that her hometown, Moadamiyat al-Sham, had been hit as well. She started tapping out a reply in the comments: “This is wrong. This is fake news. I’m in Moadamiyat and we were not hit by chemicals.” Then she started hearing screams.
Sawwan and her...
Sawwan and her...
- 2/27/2022
- by Tessa Stuart
- Rollingstone.com
In one of Syrian-born artist Mohamad Hafez’s stunning 3D pieces, a figurine of the Virgin Mary stands before an ornate portal, her hands joined in prayer. The building around her, rendered in plaster, paint, rusted metal and found objects, is blasted to ruins.
The artwork is titled “Why Have You Forsaken Us?”
Hafez created the piece in 2017, in the midst of the civil war that has devastated the country of his birth, and reduced architectural treasures to smoking rubble. He constructed the work in Connecticut, where he lives, far from his native Damascus – a place that, for him and for so many others forced from their homeland, exists only in memory.
The Oscar-shortlisted short documentary A Broken House, directed by Jimmy Goldblum, reveals the artist at work, carefully building and decorating his miniatures. And then damaging them.
“Mohamad’s art is staggering when you see it in person,” Goldblum tells Deadline.
The artwork is titled “Why Have You Forsaken Us?”
Hafez created the piece in 2017, in the midst of the civil war that has devastated the country of his birth, and reduced architectural treasures to smoking rubble. He constructed the work in Connecticut, where he lives, far from his native Damascus – a place that, for him and for so many others forced from their homeland, exists only in memory.
The Oscar-shortlisted short documentary A Broken House, directed by Jimmy Goldblum, reveals the artist at work, carefully building and decorating his miniatures. And then damaging them.
“Mohamad’s art is staggering when you see it in person,” Goldblum tells Deadline.
- 1/28/2022
- by Matthew Carey
- Deadline Film + TV
“Neighbours,” the story of a Kurdish Syrian border village where Arabic and Jewish families find themselves pitted against each other but still manage to thwart authoritarian madness, is more than a personal story to writer-director Mano Khalil.
The feature, shot on authentic locations with accurate dialects from the region and its 1980s setting, is screening in the Camerimage Film Festival director debut section – after a decades-long development process. The cinematographer on the film was Stéphane Kuthy.
“The idea of this film came when I was still studying film directing in the former Czechoslovakia,” Khalil says, “with the script completed some 25 years ago.”
The story had to be developed outside Khalil’s homeland in Kurdistan, he explains, because “I made a short documentary called ‘The Place Where God Sleeps.’” The film won an award in Germany in 1993 “and I was arrested in Syria because of that.”
Eventually, like his characters in “Neighbours,...
The feature, shot on authentic locations with accurate dialects from the region and its 1980s setting, is screening in the Camerimage Film Festival director debut section – after a decades-long development process. The cinematographer on the film was Stéphane Kuthy.
“The idea of this film came when I was still studying film directing in the former Czechoslovakia,” Khalil says, “with the script completed some 25 years ago.”
The story had to be developed outside Khalil’s homeland in Kurdistan, he explains, because “I made a short documentary called ‘The Place Where God Sleeps.’” The film won an award in Germany in 1993 “and I was arrested in Syria because of that.”
Eventually, like his characters in “Neighbours,...
- 11/4/2021
- by Will Tizard
- Variety Film + TV
“It’s worse than what I’ve seen in my life,” said Afghan journalist Najibullah Quraishi. “I grew up in the war and I’ve seen everything with my own eyes, but this time is more dangerous than in the past. I can see a civil war in Afghanistan again.”
That statement closes out “Leaving Afghanistan,” the latest documentary from PBS’ Frontline regarding the ongoing violence in the Middle Eastern country. Quraishi’s 30-minute investigative report details the violent developments in Afghanistan following the United States’ recent decision to withdraw its forces from the country by the end of August. It’s a bleak, albeit informative and timely dispatch on Afghanistan that describes the violent forces at play in the region while offering perspectives on the situation that are typically overlooked in Western media coverage of Middle Eastern issues.
Though the documentary’s title suggests an American-oriented look at the country,...
That statement closes out “Leaving Afghanistan,” the latest documentary from PBS’ Frontline regarding the ongoing violence in the Middle Eastern country. Quraishi’s 30-minute investigative report details the violent developments in Afghanistan following the United States’ recent decision to withdraw its forces from the country by the end of August. It’s a bleak, albeit informative and timely dispatch on Afghanistan that describes the violent forces at play in the region while offering perspectives on the situation that are typically overlooked in Western media coverage of Middle Eastern issues.
Though the documentary’s title suggests an American-oriented look at the country,...
- 7/20/2021
- by Tyler Hersko
- Indiewire
Ten years after the Syrian revolution that rapidly turned into civil war, hundreds of thousands of people have been killed, tens of thousands have disappeared — believed to have been tortured and killed in government prisons — and an estimated 13 million, more than half of Syria’s prewar population, have been forcibly displaced. Filmmakers on the front lines have played a crucial role in raising awareness beyond the din of TV news. Has it all been in vain?
“If we look at where we are now as Syrians, nobody can ignore the pain and the suffering and the death and destruction,” says Waad Al-Kateab, co-director of “For Sama,” the 2020 Oscar-nominated civil war diary that traveled around the world. But at the same time, she says, “For me and all the people that I know, we’ve never said: ‘I wish it had never happened.’”
Al-Kateab mentions a friend who is still waiting to again see her father,...
“If we look at where we are now as Syrians, nobody can ignore the pain and the suffering and the death and destruction,” says Waad Al-Kateab, co-director of “For Sama,” the 2020 Oscar-nominated civil war diary that traveled around the world. But at the same time, she says, “For me and all the people that I know, we’ve never said: ‘I wish it had never happened.’”
Al-Kateab mentions a friend who is still waiting to again see her father,...
- 6/18/2021
- by Nick Vivarelli
- Variety Film + TV
After a great success of their short film “Mare Nostrum” (2016) which bagged 36 awards internationally, Syrian directors Rana Kazkaz and Anas Khalaf unite again, this time for their long-feature debut “The Translator” which celebrates its world premiere in the First Feature Competition of PÖFF (Tallinn Black Nights).
The brilliant Ziad Bakri of “Mare Nostrum” is the titular character Sami Najjar, a man whose calm life in Australia comes to an end when his brother Zaid gets arrested by Bashar al-Assad’s regime in Damascus. With scary prospects of losing his third close family member after mother and father, Sami makes a dangerous decision of flying over to Syria. He is known and not welcome back due an incident he was responsible for, and the trip needs a careful preparation involving crossing the border in an unorthodox way.
The story is set in March of 2011, at the beginning of the revolution in...
The brilliant Ziad Bakri of “Mare Nostrum” is the titular character Sami Najjar, a man whose calm life in Australia comes to an end when his brother Zaid gets arrested by Bashar al-Assad’s regime in Damascus. With scary prospects of losing his third close family member after mother and father, Sami makes a dangerous decision of flying over to Syria. He is known and not welcome back due an incident he was responsible for, and the trip needs a careful preparation involving crossing the border in an unorthodox way.
The story is set in March of 2011, at the beginning of the revolution in...
- 11/20/2020
- by Marina D. Richter
- AsianMoviePulse
Editors’ Note: With full acknowledgment of the big-picture implications of a pandemic that has already claimed thousands of lives, cratered global economies and closed international borders, Deadline’s Coping With Covid-19 Crisis series is a forum for those in the entertainment space grappling with myriad consequences of seeing a great industry screech to a halt. The hope is for an exchange of ideas and experiences, and suggestions on how businesses and individuals can best ride out a crisis that doesn’t look like it will abate any time soon. If you have a story, email mike@deadline.com.
Hospitals running out of basic supplies, desperately short of ventilators. Clinical staff risking their lives to treat patients. Doctors forced to make agonizing decisions between who lives and who dies.
Dr. Amani Ballour endured those grim conditions and worse, long before they became a reality for medical personnel around the world battling the novel coronavirus. The Syrian physician—subject of the Oscar-nominated and Emmy-contending documentary The Cave—spent more than five years running a subterranean hospital in besieged Eastern Ghouta, a facility deliberately targeted for bombing by forces allied with Syria’s dictator Bashar al-Assad. A “normal” day’s casualties might include dozens of civilians mangled in aerial bombardments and children gasping for breath after chemical attacks.
“I don’t envy the tough path that lies ahead of medical professionals in this [Covid-19] war,” says Dr. Amani (as she is commonly called). “Many doctors and nurses will watch tremendous suffering and be forced to stand by, helpless. The same circumstances that make them heroes will haunt them forever. I know firsthand what this feels like.”
Dr. Amani’s experience in the trenches in Syria gives her a unique perspective on the coronavirus emergency, the struggles confronting medical workers, and what we—and our political leaders—should be doing in response.
Deadline: What advice would you give doctors and nurses on the frontlines of the coronavirus fight?
Dr. Amani Ballour: I always got this advice when I was in Al-Ghouta—of course I didn’t take it a lot, but it’s really serious. The medical workers and the doctors, they have to protect themselves before doing anything else, because if we lose them we can do nothing after that. We don’t know how long this pandemic will last so we have to be at our best all the time. I would advise them just to take care of themselves, to protect themselves.
Deadline: What practical steps should we all be taking to combat the emergency?
Dr. Amani: There is at least one clear way that we can help the doctors, nurses and other health care professionals as they battle this pandemic: stay home. Stay home so the spread of the virus can slow—and so doctors don’t have to face the burden of choosing who lives and who dies. It won’t always be this easy to help, but while it is, it is truly the least we can do.
Deadline: For years you had to make life-or-death triage decisions about which patients to prioritize for treatment. We are hearing of doctors in Italy facing the same dilemma in the midst of the Covid-19 crisis, and there’s a potential for it happening here.
Dr. Amani: This is the most difficult thing I faced the whole time I was working [in the hospital]. After each massacre we treated a lot of injured people. Sometimes we had to decide to help one person over another because he has or she has a hope to survive more than this one… I chose to [prioritize] the children, and I chose the children who are next to me, but other children and other people died because we couldn’t help them. I can’t forget that and I will never forget that. I always think about that. I hope these [doctors] who choose now, I hope they can forget [eventually]… I really feel guilty because I had to choose, but there is nothing to do.
As doctors, we can [normally] classify the injuries, but in the chemical attack—I remember that very well, it was sarin gas—I couldn’t classify the people because all of them had the same symptoms. They were suffocating and I think it’s now the same situation with coronavirus. All the people have the same symptoms… they need ventilators. This is what happened with us. All the people have the same symptoms and they need very urgent help.
Deadline: What do you make of the U.S. response to the Covid-19 crisis? We now have more cases here than anywhere else in the world.
Dr. Amani: This is really shocking. I think that government leaders, they have to reconsider their policy. … They have enough missiles if there is a war but they don’t have enough medical supplies. … We will [overcome] this thing and we will get rid of this virus, but I hope they listen, they learn a lesson from what happened now. We don’t need more weapons in this world. We need more things to protect people, not to kill people.
Deadline: In your hospital you dealt with a constant shortage of equipment and medicine. You wrote, “Often the only anesthesia available for surgery was the soothing recording of an orchestra to distract the mind.” Here, we are facing a shortage of ventilators, as well as masks and personal protective gear for medical workers.
Dr. Amani: I’m really surprised what has happened [in the U.S.]—they don’t have enough resources, they don’t have enough ventilators. The most cases are in New York now. Can you imagine if it happened in Idlib [in northwest Syria]? This is what I think about. If a developed country couldn’t deal with this pandemic, how are [less developed] countries going to do that?
Deadline: You were forced into exile after the Assad regime crushed the last resistance in Eastern Ghouta. So far as you can tell, what is the situation like in Syria under the additional threat of the coronavirus?
Dr. Amani: The Assad regime destroyed a lot of hospitals. They killed a lot of doctors and actually most of the other doctors and medical workers left Syria. So there are not enough medical workers and doctors in Syria, no good healthcare system.
Three months ago, the Assad regime started a [bombing] campaign against Idlib and they destroyed three hospitals just in one day. Doctors there expect that about 100,000 people are going to die if the virus reaches them. The virus is now in the neighboring countries—in Turkey, in Jordan, in Lebanon. It’s everywhere around them. That’s why we’re very worried about the people there. The Syrian population could be ravaged by this disease: social distancing in refugee camps is virtually impossible, and the continued bombing of hospitals will be even more devastating as hospitals begin to overcrowd.
Deadline: You point out that the coronavirus pandemic has given others a better sense of what life has been like in Syria during the civil war.
Dr. Amani: Because now all the people have the same experience—to be afraid all the time from something. If you wanted to protect yourself, your family, your children, and you can’t find the resources. This is what all the world is experiencing now. I’m not happy because this happened. But I hope people [understand] how Syrians lived for about nine years without anything, in fear all the time. They couldn’t protect their children, couldn’t protect their families. If they flee from place to other place, the bombing follows them into the camps.
Deadline: You’re currently in Berlin, stranded there when travel restrictions hit to contain the spread of Covid-19. You were there on a fundraising tour for the Al Amal (Hope) Fund, which was created to honor your work in Syria. How difficult is it to be away from your homeland at this time of growing crisis?
Dr. Amani: I wish I can be there now but I’m in quarantine. I can’t move. Before I could do advocacy for them and fundraising for these people. This was my way to help them, but now it’s stalled. Working to help other people, that makes very, very beautiful feelings. I was happy when I was there because when you save a life, of course you’re going to feel happy in spite of all the circumstances, all the danger. I was happy because I was useful.
I see a lot of doctors and medical workers, they really risk their lives [fighting the coronavirus pandemic]. I can understand that very well, because we believe in humanity. I’m ready to risk my life anytime to help others. And this is our work as medical workers. This is what we want to do, why we study and we work in the medical field… I really respect them and appreciate what they do. And I think this is just because we are humans. If you can help someone, if you can do something to protect someone, of course you’re going to do it.
For more information on the Al Amal (Hope) Fund, click here.
Hospitals running out of basic supplies, desperately short of ventilators. Clinical staff risking their lives to treat patients. Doctors forced to make agonizing decisions between who lives and who dies.
Dr. Amani Ballour endured those grim conditions and worse, long before they became a reality for medical personnel around the world battling the novel coronavirus. The Syrian physician—subject of the Oscar-nominated and Emmy-contending documentary The Cave—spent more than five years running a subterranean hospital in besieged Eastern Ghouta, a facility deliberately targeted for bombing by forces allied with Syria’s dictator Bashar al-Assad. A “normal” day’s casualties might include dozens of civilians mangled in aerial bombardments and children gasping for breath after chemical attacks.
“I don’t envy the tough path that lies ahead of medical professionals in this [Covid-19] war,” says Dr. Amani (as she is commonly called). “Many doctors and nurses will watch tremendous suffering and be forced to stand by, helpless. The same circumstances that make them heroes will haunt them forever. I know firsthand what this feels like.”
Dr. Amani’s experience in the trenches in Syria gives her a unique perspective on the coronavirus emergency, the struggles confronting medical workers, and what we—and our political leaders—should be doing in response.
Deadline: What advice would you give doctors and nurses on the frontlines of the coronavirus fight?
Dr. Amani Ballour: I always got this advice when I was in Al-Ghouta—of course I didn’t take it a lot, but it’s really serious. The medical workers and the doctors, they have to protect themselves before doing anything else, because if we lose them we can do nothing after that. We don’t know how long this pandemic will last so we have to be at our best all the time. I would advise them just to take care of themselves, to protect themselves.
Deadline: What practical steps should we all be taking to combat the emergency?
Dr. Amani: There is at least one clear way that we can help the doctors, nurses and other health care professionals as they battle this pandemic: stay home. Stay home so the spread of the virus can slow—and so doctors don’t have to face the burden of choosing who lives and who dies. It won’t always be this easy to help, but while it is, it is truly the least we can do.
Deadline: For years you had to make life-or-death triage decisions about which patients to prioritize for treatment. We are hearing of doctors in Italy facing the same dilemma in the midst of the Covid-19 crisis, and there’s a potential for it happening here.
Dr. Amani: This is the most difficult thing I faced the whole time I was working [in the hospital]. After each massacre we treated a lot of injured people. Sometimes we had to decide to help one person over another because he has or she has a hope to survive more than this one… I chose to [prioritize] the children, and I chose the children who are next to me, but other children and other people died because we couldn’t help them. I can’t forget that and I will never forget that. I always think about that. I hope these [doctors] who choose now, I hope they can forget [eventually]… I really feel guilty because I had to choose, but there is nothing to do.
As doctors, we can [normally] classify the injuries, but in the chemical attack—I remember that very well, it was sarin gas—I couldn’t classify the people because all of them had the same symptoms. They were suffocating and I think it’s now the same situation with coronavirus. All the people have the same symptoms… they need ventilators. This is what happened with us. All the people have the same symptoms and they need very urgent help.
Deadline: What do you make of the U.S. response to the Covid-19 crisis? We now have more cases here than anywhere else in the world.
Dr. Amani: This is really shocking. I think that government leaders, they have to reconsider their policy. … They have enough missiles if there is a war but they don’t have enough medical supplies. … We will [overcome] this thing and we will get rid of this virus, but I hope they listen, they learn a lesson from what happened now. We don’t need more weapons in this world. We need more things to protect people, not to kill people.
Deadline: In your hospital you dealt with a constant shortage of equipment and medicine. You wrote, “Often the only anesthesia available for surgery was the soothing recording of an orchestra to distract the mind.” Here, we are facing a shortage of ventilators, as well as masks and personal protective gear for medical workers.
Dr. Amani: I’m really surprised what has happened [in the U.S.]—they don’t have enough resources, they don’t have enough ventilators. The most cases are in New York now. Can you imagine if it happened in Idlib [in northwest Syria]? This is what I think about. If a developed country couldn’t deal with this pandemic, how are [less developed] countries going to do that?
Deadline: You were forced into exile after the Assad regime crushed the last resistance in Eastern Ghouta. So far as you can tell, what is the situation like in Syria under the additional threat of the coronavirus?
Dr. Amani: The Assad regime destroyed a lot of hospitals. They killed a lot of doctors and actually most of the other doctors and medical workers left Syria. So there are not enough medical workers and doctors in Syria, no good healthcare system.
Three months ago, the Assad regime started a [bombing] campaign against Idlib and they destroyed three hospitals just in one day. Doctors there expect that about 100,000 people are going to die if the virus reaches them. The virus is now in the neighboring countries—in Turkey, in Jordan, in Lebanon. It’s everywhere around them. That’s why we’re very worried about the people there. The Syrian population could be ravaged by this disease: social distancing in refugee camps is virtually impossible, and the continued bombing of hospitals will be even more devastating as hospitals begin to overcrowd.
Deadline: You point out that the coronavirus pandemic has given others a better sense of what life has been like in Syria during the civil war.
Dr. Amani: Because now all the people have the same experience—to be afraid all the time from something. If you wanted to protect yourself, your family, your children, and you can’t find the resources. This is what all the world is experiencing now. I’m not happy because this happened. But I hope people [understand] how Syrians lived for about nine years without anything, in fear all the time. They couldn’t protect their children, couldn’t protect their families. If they flee from place to other place, the bombing follows them into the camps.
Deadline: You’re currently in Berlin, stranded there when travel restrictions hit to contain the spread of Covid-19. You were there on a fundraising tour for the Al Amal (Hope) Fund, which was created to honor your work in Syria. How difficult is it to be away from your homeland at this time of growing crisis?
Dr. Amani: I wish I can be there now but I’m in quarantine. I can’t move. Before I could do advocacy for them and fundraising for these people. This was my way to help them, but now it’s stalled. Working to help other people, that makes very, very beautiful feelings. I was happy when I was there because when you save a life, of course you’re going to feel happy in spite of all the circumstances, all the danger. I was happy because I was useful.
I see a lot of doctors and medical workers, they really risk their lives [fighting the coronavirus pandemic]. I can understand that very well, because we believe in humanity. I’m ready to risk my life anytime to help others. And this is our work as medical workers. This is what we want to do, why we study and we work in the medical field… I really respect them and appreciate what they do. And I think this is just because we are humans. If you can help someone, if you can do something to protect someone, of course you’re going to do it.
For more information on the Al Amal (Hope) Fund, click here.
- 4/1/2020
- by Matthew Carey
- Deadline Film + TV
Feras Fayyad would have been forgiven for not wanting to return to Syria.
After winning a Sundance grand jury prize and an Oscar nomination for his 2017 feature doc, Last Men in Aleppo, which follows the work of Syria's White Helmets volunteer force, the filmmaker was warned in no uncertain terms that his success would make him a more visible target for Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad and his murderous regime.
Having already been arrested and tortured twice by Syrian troops in 2011, Fayyad had no desire to return to a jail cell.
"But even though my picture was well ...
After winning a Sundance grand jury prize and an Oscar nomination for his 2017 feature doc, Last Men in Aleppo, which follows the work of Syria's White Helmets volunteer force, the filmmaker was warned in no uncertain terms that his success would make him a more visible target for Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad and his murderous regime.
Having already been arrested and tortured twice by Syrian troops in 2011, Fayyad had no desire to return to a jail cell.
"But even though my picture was well ...
Feras Fayyad would have been forgiven for not wanting to return to Syria.
After winning a Sundance grand jury prize and an Oscar nomination for his 2017 feature doc, Last Men in Aleppo, which follows the work of Syria's White Helmets volunteer force, the filmmaker was warned in no uncertain terms that his success would make him a more visible target for Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad and his murderous regime.
Having already been arrested and tortured twice by Syrian troops in 2011, Fayyad had no desire to return to a jail cell.
"But even though my picture was well ...
After winning a Sundance grand jury prize and an Oscar nomination for his 2017 feature doc, Last Men in Aleppo, which follows the work of Syria's White Helmets volunteer force, the filmmaker was warned in no uncertain terms that his success would make him a more visible target for Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad and his murderous regime.
Having already been arrested and tortured twice by Syrian troops in 2011, Fayyad had no desire to return to a jail cell.
"But even though my picture was well ...
It’s one thing to hear of the chemical attacks in Syria killing thousands of civilians including children, but watching it takes it to another level in The Cave, an Academy Award-nominated documentary now airing on the Nat Geo channel. The Cave follows Doctor Amani Ballour and her hospital staff who ran an underground hospital in Ghouta, Syria as they struggle to help victims (mostly children) from Bashar al-Assad's attacks on his own people. Dr. Amani and her medical staff exposed themselves in the documentary which means the ruthless Syrian leader can target this group of people. The film’s producers update CineMovie on how the hospital staff are doing since The Cave was released.
- 1/30/2020
- by info@cinemovie.tv (Super User)
- CineMovie
Feras Fayyad risked his own life to bring “The Cave,” his harrowing look at a team of female doctors tending to the wounded in the midst of the Syrian War, to the screen.
The acclaimed documentary is short-listed for an Academy Award and has earned rave reviews for its unflinching portrait of heroism in the face of a complete social breakdown. In addition to its artistic achievements, “The Cave” also represents an extraordinary endurance act on the part the filmmakers.
Fayyad and his primary cinematographers Muhammed Khair Al Shami, Ammar Sulaiman and Mohammed Eyad, followed Dr. Amani Ballor, a pediatrician and the manager of an underground hospital in war-torn Al Ghouta, as she tended to patients and tried to maintain morale as bombs dropped all around her and her team. Between 2012 to 2018, they shot roughly 1,000 hours of material.
Capturing the story required Fayyad to improvise ways to smuggle himself and...
The acclaimed documentary is short-listed for an Academy Award and has earned rave reviews for its unflinching portrait of heroism in the face of a complete social breakdown. In addition to its artistic achievements, “The Cave” also represents an extraordinary endurance act on the part the filmmakers.
Fayyad and his primary cinematographers Muhammed Khair Al Shami, Ammar Sulaiman and Mohammed Eyad, followed Dr. Amani Ballor, a pediatrician and the manager of an underground hospital in war-torn Al Ghouta, as she tended to patients and tried to maintain morale as bombs dropped all around her and her team. Between 2012 to 2018, they shot roughly 1,000 hours of material.
Capturing the story required Fayyad to improvise ways to smuggle himself and...
- 1/4/2020
- by Brent Lang
- Variety Film + TV
Early Friday morning in Iraq, the United States assassinated high-ranking Iranian military and intelligence official Qasem Soleimani. He was killed in a drone strike at Baghdad International Airport, along with several officials from Iran-backed militias operating in Iraq. The attack represents the most aggressive action yet in an increasingly tense standoff between the U.S. and Iran, and one that many believe could lead to war between the two nations.
The Pentagon confirmed the news of Soleimani’s assassination late Thursday night in the U.S., noting that the action...
The Pentagon confirmed the news of Soleimani’s assassination late Thursday night in the U.S., noting that the action...
- 1/3/2020
- by Ryan Bort
- Rollingstone.com
Sun Valley, Idaho has been a holiday haven for members of the entertainment industry since the golden era of Hollywood, when the likes of Gary Cooper and Clark Gable flocked to the affluent ski resort. Today, the area remains a favored vacation getaway for such actors and filmmakers as Tom Hanks, Clint Eastwood and Chelsea Handler.
With a bounty of fir trees bedecked with twinkling lights and a blanket of pristine powdery snow, Sun Valley also marked the perfect spot for Variety and Sun Valley Film Festival’s Screening Series on Dec. 27 and 29, where more than 200 voting members of the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences gathered at the Argyros Performing Arts Center for each of the two screenings—Clint Eastwood’s “Richard Jewell” and “The Cave,” the latest documentary from Oscar-nominated Syriran filmmaker Feras Fayyad.
Teddy Grennan, founder of the Sun Valley Film Festival, and Candice Pate, the fest’s director,...
With a bounty of fir trees bedecked with twinkling lights and a blanket of pristine powdery snow, Sun Valley also marked the perfect spot for Variety and Sun Valley Film Festival’s Screening Series on Dec. 27 and 29, where more than 200 voting members of the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences gathered at the Argyros Performing Arts Center for each of the two screenings—Clint Eastwood’s “Richard Jewell” and “The Cave,” the latest documentary from Oscar-nominated Syriran filmmaker Feras Fayyad.
Teddy Grennan, founder of the Sun Valley Film Festival, and Candice Pate, the fest’s director,...
- 12/31/2019
- by Malina Saval
- Variety Film + TV
When the Academy announced its shortlist of 15 feature documentaries still in contention for the Oscars, one title on it was no surprise: For Sama, directed by Waad Al-Kateab and Edward Watts. It is the single-most honored nonfiction film of the year, winning dozens of prizes at film festivals across the globe from Cannes to SXSW, Sheffield and HotDocs. Earlier this month For Sama won Best Documentary at the Ida Awards in Hollywood.
The Syrian-born Al-Kateab made For Sama to document the destruction of her city of Aleppo, decimated by Syrian government forces and their Russian allies. The film takes the form of a love letter to her baby daughter Sama, born in the midst of the brutal siege. The ongoing recognition for the film has left her stunned, Al-Kateab says, because “experts” had assured her the documentary would be met with indifference.
“We were told that the film will not...
The Syrian-born Al-Kateab made For Sama to document the destruction of her city of Aleppo, decimated by Syrian government forces and their Russian allies. The film takes the form of a love letter to her baby daughter Sama, born in the midst of the brutal siege. The ongoing recognition for the film has left her stunned, Al-Kateab says, because “experts” had assured her the documentary would be met with indifference.
“We were told that the film will not...
- 12/20/2019
- by Matthew Carey
- Deadline Film + TV
On the morning of October 12th, Hevrin Khalaf, a rising young Kurdish political leader, rode along the M4 highway in northern Syria. Seated in the back of a bulletproof Toyota SUV, she rushed past the battle-scarred villages of her homeland, now three days into a brutal military assault from Turkey, made possible by Donald Trump’s decision to pull U.S. troops from the region. She was on her way to Raqqa, the short-lived capital of the Islamic State and the largest and most heavily damaged city in Kurdish-held territory.
- 12/18/2019
- by Jason Motlagh
- Rollingstone.com
This powerful, immensely moving documentary follows the courageous medical staff who must treat injured children as bombs fall around them
Feras Fayyad, the young Syrian documentary-maker who filmed Last Men in Aleppo (and was himself imprisoned and tortured by Bashar al-Assad’s regime), returns with a chilling, shaming film made over two years inside a Syrian hospital in Ghouta, the city besieged by the Syrian government for five years until 2018.
If there is a chink of hope here it’s Amani Ballour, the hospital’s manager, a paediatrician in her late 20s. “I know this life is tough. But it’s honest,” she says. Her deep sense of purpose is humbling – it carries her through hellish days treating dozens of bloodied and badly injured children. Her gentleness with patients is desperately moving, too.
Feras Fayyad, the young Syrian documentary-maker who filmed Last Men in Aleppo (and was himself imprisoned and tortured by Bashar al-Assad’s regime), returns with a chilling, shaming film made over two years inside a Syrian hospital in Ghouta, the city besieged by the Syrian government for five years until 2018.
If there is a chink of hope here it’s Amani Ballour, the hospital’s manager, a paediatrician in her late 20s. “I know this life is tough. But it’s honest,” she says. Her deep sense of purpose is humbling – it carries her through hellish days treating dozens of bloodied and badly injured children. Her gentleness with patients is desperately moving, too.
- 12/6/2019
- by Cath Clarke
- The Guardian - Film News
Waad al-Kateab and Edward Watts’ film and The Personal History of David Copperfield were the big winners at the 22nd British Independent Film Awards. The Syrian Civil War documentary For Sama picked up four awards at the BIFAs: Best British Independent Film (making it the first doc ever to snag this particular accolade), Best Director for co-directors Waad al-Kateab and Edward Watts, Best Documentary and Best Editing. Accepting the awards, al-Kateab reminded the audience of the ongoing struggle to remove President Bashar al-Assad from power as well as Britain’s responsibility in the current conflict. She also added that she is making another film on the Syrian crisis. Armando Iannucci’s The Personal History of David Copperfield ended the night with five gongs. The adaptation of the Charles Dickens novel won Best Screenplay for Iannucci and Simon Blackwell, and Best Supporting Actor for Hugh Laurie, as well as three awards in the.
The Democratic presidential debate on Wednesday was free of some of the fireworks of previous events, but one candidate stood out for her sparring with her rivals: Tulsi Gabbard.
The Hawaii Democrat was a target of one of Kamala Harris’s attacks. “It is unfortunate that we have someone on this stage who is attempting to be the Democratic nominee for president of the United States, who during the Obama administration spent four years full-time on Fox News criticizing President Obama,” Harris said, adding that Gabbard “buddied up with Steve Bannon to get a meeting with Donald Trump.”
Gabbard responded, “What Senator Harris is doing is unfortunately continuing to traffic in lies and smears and innuendos because she cannot challenge the substance of the argument that I’m making.”
She said Harris would “continue the status quo, continue the Bush-Clinton-Trump foreign policy of regime change wars.” She has made a...
The Hawaii Democrat was a target of one of Kamala Harris’s attacks. “It is unfortunate that we have someone on this stage who is attempting to be the Democratic nominee for president of the United States, who during the Obama administration spent four years full-time on Fox News criticizing President Obama,” Harris said, adding that Gabbard “buddied up with Steve Bannon to get a meeting with Donald Trump.”
Gabbard responded, “What Senator Harris is doing is unfortunately continuing to traffic in lies and smears and innuendos because she cannot challenge the substance of the argument that I’m making.”
She said Harris would “continue the status quo, continue the Bush-Clinton-Trump foreign policy of regime change wars.” She has made a...
- 11/21/2019
- by Ted Johnson
- Deadline Film + TV
Syrians living in cities besieged by the government of Bashar al-Assad exist in a sonic torture chamber.
The skies shriek with Russian jets. Buildings groan from the concussive force of distant bomb blasts. Explosions from mortar shells shatter the peace. Bursts of small arms fire suddenly erupt. Adults and children tremble when deadly ordinance whistles in their direction, wondering if the walls around them will soon collapse.
Syrian filmmaker Feras Fayyad wanted to capture the feeling of this aural landscape for his Oscar-contending film The Cave, about an underground hospital run by a woman, Dr. Amani Ballour.
“The sound is [the] power of cinema and story and reality,” Fayyad wrote on Facebook earlier this week. His goal was to reveal “what does [it] mean to live in an underground hospital in Syria bombed every two seconds by Russian/Assad warplanes. I have the responsibility with my team to take you there.”
A...
The skies shriek with Russian jets. Buildings groan from the concussive force of distant bomb blasts. Explosions from mortar shells shatter the peace. Bursts of small arms fire suddenly erupt. Adults and children tremble when deadly ordinance whistles in their direction, wondering if the walls around them will soon collapse.
Syrian filmmaker Feras Fayyad wanted to capture the feeling of this aural landscape for his Oscar-contending film The Cave, about an underground hospital run by a woman, Dr. Amani Ballour.
“The sound is [the] power of cinema and story and reality,” Fayyad wrote on Facebook earlier this week. His goal was to reveal “what does [it] mean to live in an underground hospital in Syria bombed every two seconds by Russian/Assad warplanes. I have the responsibility with my team to take you there.”
A...
- 11/15/2019
- by Matthew Carey
- Deadline Film + TV
In many respects, the final night of the second round of Democratic debates was a lot like the penultimate episode of Game of Thrones: somehow, it managed to be bloody and impossibly boring at the same time. The target of most of the candidates’ ire was former Vice President Joe Biden, currently the leading Democratic candidate in the polls, who took half-hearted hit after half-hearted hit with the unwavering, rictus-grinned composure of a crash test dummy.
But Biden wasn’t the only candidate to take a beating. In one particularly brutal moment,...
But Biden wasn’t the only candidate to take a beating. In one particularly brutal moment,...
- 8/1/2019
- by EJ Dickson
- Rollingstone.com
The Battle of Aleppo ended three years ago with Bashar al-Assad strangling the rebel’s supply line. Waad Al-Kateab joined the civil uprising in 2011 shortly after graduating with a degree in economics. Al-Kateab documented the experience using her phone, the go-to device for capturing underrepresented voices in documentary and fiction. Her film For Sama resulted from years of footage, co-directed by Edward Watts, who helped to compile the footage.
Sama is Waad and Hazma’s daughter, who was born in the Battle’s final year. Waad narrates and reflects on the world Sama was born into; she wants the best for her daughter and her country, but as friends from the rebellion die and Hazma’s hospital is destroyed by a bomb, hope is in short supply. For Sama is a diary of Sama’s first year and Waad’s experience marrying and having a child during the civil war.
Sama is Waad and Hazma’s daughter, who was born in the Battle’s final year. Waad narrates and reflects on the world Sama was born into; she wants the best for her daughter and her country, but as friends from the rebellion die and Hazma’s hospital is destroyed by a bomb, hope is in short supply. For Sama is a diary of Sama’s first year and Waad’s experience marrying and having a child during the civil war.
- 7/31/2019
- by The Film Stage
- The Film Stage
Towards the beginning of Waad al-Kateab and Edward Watts’ “For Sama” — a bracingly horrific yet resiliently beautiful documentary about al-Kateab’s experience as a woman, a patriot, and a mother living in the ruined heart of Aleppo during the ongoing war in Syria — a few medical volunteers are seen messing around in a hospital during a break from the shelling. They’re young and smiling and you would never know what they were living through if not for the blasted concrete on the floor and the wet blood on their clothes. A few years earlier, they were regular university students pursuing regular careers; now, a normal day consists of avoiding bombs and burying friends.
Why don’t they leave? How could they stay? What inspires someone to scrap for the ashes of a country where local jihadists, foreign warplanes, and even their own president are competing to exterminate them? The...
Why don’t they leave? How could they stay? What inspires someone to scrap for the ashes of a country where local jihadists, foreign warplanes, and even their own president are competing to exterminate them? The...
- 7/26/2019
- by David Ehrlich
- Indiewire
Waad al-Kateab filming the ruins of a building destroyed by bombing in besieged east Aleppo,October 2016. Photo: courtesy of PBS Distribution, copyright Waad al-Kateab
Syrian documentary For Sama - directed by Waad al-Kateab and Edward Watts - stems from footage al-Kateab began to shoot on her mobile phone to document protests in her homeland in 2012. From those small beginnings, came work with Channel 4 News, in 2016, on a series of films called Inside Aleppo, as the conflict between the rebels and the regime of Bashar al-Assad and his Russian allies deepened. Now the film she has created with Watts from the hours of footage she shot in the city before she and her husband Hamza and their daughter Sama - to whom the film is addressed - were evacuated from in December 2016, offers a female perspective in a documentary area that has previously been dominated by male voices.
Waad, Hamza...
Syrian documentary For Sama - directed by Waad al-Kateab and Edward Watts - stems from footage al-Kateab began to shoot on her mobile phone to document protests in her homeland in 2012. From those small beginnings, came work with Channel 4 News, in 2016, on a series of films called Inside Aleppo, as the conflict between the rebels and the regime of Bashar al-Assad and his Russian allies deepened. Now the film she has created with Watts from the hours of footage she shot in the city before she and her husband Hamza and their daughter Sama - to whom the film is addressed - were evacuated from in December 2016, offers a female perspective in a documentary area that has previously been dominated by male voices.
Waad, Hamza...
- 7/25/2019
- by Amber Wilkinson
- eyeforfilm.co.uk
John Carpenter’s career in Hollywood was nearly over before it started.
In this exclusive one-on-on interview with the horror/sci-fi director, he talks about finding respect later in his career. So much so that the filmmaker was asked to lead a Masterclass at this year’s Cannes Film Festival, where he also received the Golden Coach Award, given to those who brought innovative qualities to their projects.
After several critical and commercial failures in the 1970s, he struck gold with “Halloween” in 1978, kickstarting the slasher genre and a franchise that has lasted 40 years. Eventually, fans began retroactively heaping newfound love onto many of his other films, like “The Fog,” “Assault on Precinct 13” and “Escape From New York,” and have turned them into cult classics.
However, despite being known as one of the kings of cult phenomenons, Carpenter said he’s unfamiliar with the term. “I have no idea what it means.
In this exclusive one-on-on interview with the horror/sci-fi director, he talks about finding respect later in his career. So much so that the filmmaker was asked to lead a Masterclass at this year’s Cannes Film Festival, where he also received the Golden Coach Award, given to those who brought innovative qualities to their projects.
After several critical and commercial failures in the 1970s, he struck gold with “Halloween” in 1978, kickstarting the slasher genre and a franchise that has lasted 40 years. Eventually, fans began retroactively heaping newfound love onto many of his other films, like “The Fog,” “Assault on Precinct 13” and “Escape From New York,” and have turned them into cult classics.
However, despite being known as one of the kings of cult phenomenons, Carpenter said he’s unfamiliar with the term. “I have no idea what it means.
- 7/3/2019
- by Jordan Moreau
- Variety Film + TV
In a lot of ways, the Cannes Film Festival premiere of “For Sama” should have felt like nothing new. After all, the film had premiered in March at the South by Southwest Film Festival and also screened earlier in May at the Hot Docs festival in Canada, making it the rare Cannes film to not premiere on the Croisette.
Beyond that, “For Sama” is a documentary about the bloody conflict in Syria, which has already been the subject of a string of notable nonfiction films, among them Feras Fayyad’s “Last Men in Aleppo,” Evgeny Afineevsky’s “Cries From Syria,” Matthew Heineman’s “City of Ghosts,” Talal Derki’s “The Return to Homs” and Sebastian Junger’s “Hell on Earth” in the feature realm, as well as the Oscar-nominated short docs “The White Helmets” (which won) and “Watani: My Homeland.”
What else, you could ask, is left to say about Syria,...
Beyond that, “For Sama” is a documentary about the bloody conflict in Syria, which has already been the subject of a string of notable nonfiction films, among them Feras Fayyad’s “Last Men in Aleppo,” Evgeny Afineevsky’s “Cries From Syria,” Matthew Heineman’s “City of Ghosts,” Talal Derki’s “The Return to Homs” and Sebastian Junger’s “Hell on Earth” in the feature realm, as well as the Oscar-nominated short docs “The White Helmets” (which won) and “Watani: My Homeland.”
What else, you could ask, is left to say about Syria,...
- 5/15/2019
- by Steve Pond
- The Wrap
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