Screening of the documentary 'Journey into Memory' and discussion with Syrian film directors Hala Mohammad and Haitham Hakki.
14 November, at 20.00.
Foundation Three Cultures
The Fundación Tres Culturas del Mediterráneo, in collaboration with the Souriyat Sin Fronteras-Spain Association, is organising a film and debate session to address the situation of dissident intellectuals under the Syrian regime. This session is part of the film series that the association, together with the Euro-Arab Foundation and the University of Granada, will be showing in Granada between 11 and 15 November, as part of its activities to raise awareness of the current conflict in Syria.
The session will take place at the Tres Culturas headquarters on Thursday 14 November, and will show the documentary Journey down memory laneby Hala Mohammad, in which three real dissidents are interviewed: a writer, a poet and a theatre director. The screening will be followed by a discussion with the director and filmmaker Haitham Hakki. Both have dealt with prisoners of conscience in their country from different perspectives.
Journey down memory lane
Directed by Hala Mohammad. Syria, 2006, 47 minutes. O.V. with English subtitles.
Synopsis. Documentary on prisoners of conscience in Syria. After a casting where director Hala Mohammad interviewed some 500 prisoners, she chose three real dissidents who exchange their stories: a writer, Yassin Haj Saleh; a poet, Farag Bayraqdar; and a theatre director and playwright, Ghassan Jbai. The film takes place on the same road that had taken the three of them to a desert prison next to the historic city of Palmyra. In the words of the director: "We dreamed and still dream of establishing the rule of law, but the regime set up new prisons like mushrooms to lock up our dreams, which frighten it. Our lives, as in the Journey down memory laneThey do not end, but continue to search for stations of hope".
Hala Mohammad
Born in Syria, she studied film at the Université Paris VIII Vincennes-Saint-Denis. She has worked as a costume designer, scriptwriter and assistant director, as well as in poetry and journalism. She has published five collections of poems. In both her film and literary work, she examines the theme of memory and elemental emotions such as fear, loneliness and sadness. She has directed several documentaries. She is married to the director and screenwriter Haitham Hakki, whose film The long night is about political prisoners from the perspective of their relatives. Hala Mohammad lives in Paris.
Haitham Hakki
He has been working as a director, filmmaker, film producer and researcher for 40 years. He graduated from the Moscow Film Institute in 1973. Considered one of the most important pillars of drama production in Syrian television, he has directed more than 40 TV series and founded a directing school and a film studio in the suburbs of Damascus. He is the director and producer of a number of short films and feature films, including The long nightwhich deals with the subject of political prisoners in the era of the Ba'ath party dictatorship. With this film he won important national and international awards. All his works have been suspended in Syria because of his support for the revolution and the Syrian people. He currently lives in Paris after being forced to leave his country.
*Read the magazine article cultures Political dissent under the new regime by Najib Ghadbian in http://revistaculturas.org/disidencia-politica-bajo-el-nuevo-regimen/
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