REVOLUTION OF THE WIND
How autobiographical Syrian films allow ghosts back
Featuring: Reem Al Ghazzi, Ammar Obeid, Yazan Rabee, Samer Najari, Meyar Al Roumi, Afraa Batous, Eyas Almokdad, Émilie Serri, Wael Kadlo
Curated by Ahmad Alhaj
Online screening
Part 1: April 11 – 21, 2024
Part 2: April 21-30, 2024
RSVP: artearchive.org
Available worldwide
FREE / $5 suggested donation
We Syrians are haunted by the wind. The saying goes, “be ready, the past is coming.” And I say, “be ready, Syrian films are coming like the wind.” -Ahmad Alhaj
REVOLUTION OF THE WIND is a series of Syrian autobiographical fiction and documentary films exploring migration, grief, memory and history following the political instability of the Arab Spring. Within this program, the wind is understood to be the central metaphor that represents destiny and which links the films together. Whether through unleashing its wrath, or by leading in flight, the wind is an element that guides the lives of countless people in ways unseen. Primarily shot across North America and Europe, the films present deeply humanizing narratives of Syrian experiences, shedding light of the contradictions and irreconcilable realities of longing for a past that haunts the present.
REVOLUTION OF THE WIND is curated by Ahmad Alhaj and presented by ArteEast. This program is part of the legacy program Unpacking the ArteArchive, which preserves and presents 20 years of film and video programming by ArteEast. The program will be screened in two parts online on artearchive.org from April 11 – 21 and April 21 – 30. A selection from the program will be screened in person at IAIA, Institute of Arab and Islamic Art, on Sunday, April 21.
PART II
Back, Yazan Rabee, The Netherlands/Syria, 2022, 7 min.
Documentary, Arabic with English subtitles
A chase, footsteps closing in; as you approach your house, it moves further away. This is a recurring nightmare, shared by many Syrians who have fled their homeland. At night they find themselves back in their hometowns, running, chased by invisible men. They’re looking for a safe place they can never reach. BACK dives into this nightmare to examine where it stems from. Did the trauma start at the protests against Bashar al-Assad, like it did for director Yazan Rabee? Or do we have to go back further to the terror during the reign of Bashar’s father, Hafez al-Assad?
Would You Play it Again, Ammar Obeid, Germany/France, 2021, 20 min.
Documentary, English and Arabic with English subtitles
Mudar is a Syrian actor, flew to Germany by a visa from Beirut, he researches refugee’s journeys of refugees who came walking on their feet, for his theater play and explores the real experiences that immigrants lived throughout their road. After his meeting with a Syrian filmmaker Ammar Obeid, Mudar wants to stand naked outside in the cold of his backyard.
Becoming Iphigenia, Reem Al Ghazzi, Syria/UK/KSA, 2023, 67 min.
Documentary, Arabic with English subtitles
Before taking the stage, a group of young Syrian women acting in a work of documentary theater must unravel the legacy of patriarchy in their upbringing – all while making their lives anew in Germany and coming into their own.
The Way Home, Wael Kadlo, Syria/Lebanon, 2018, 64 min.
Documentary, Arabic with English subtitles
Through his quest to better understand the shredded state of his family, Wael questions the long-lasting socio-political crisis in Syria. In 1980, I was born in Syria coinciding with the launch of a project aiming to build an international highway only a few meters away from my house – a bridge that would separate the city from its poor suburb. In 1985, I met my father for the first time and realized that the woman I always called “mother” was in fact my grandmother. A conflict had arisen between her and my biological mother over my custody. A few years later my journey fighting cancer started with several false diagnoses and delayed treatment at governmental hospitals. In 2000, I asked about and searched for my biological mother and our family history. But my attempts to confront and understand my past shook the stability that each member of the family had created. In 2013 I fled to Lebanon and continued my family research with the conviction that cancer, family dismantlement, and urban transformations are a mere metaphor of our present general social and political crisis.
