Synopsis
A film about memories, guilt, and resilience. Inspired by the writing of Mourid Barghouti and the director's personal and family experiences, this is the story of Ashraf, a Palestinian father living in the UK, who is struggling to confront the memories that haunt him: the promises he could not keep, and the family he could not protect.
Director: Saeed Taji Farouky
Producer: Maria Caruana Galizia
Languages: English and Arabic with English subtitles
Country: UK
Duration: 20 min
2019
Saeed Taji Farouky is a Palestinian/Egyptian/British filmmaker who has been producing work around themes of conflict, human rights, and colonialism since 1998. His latest documentary, TELL SPRING NOT TO COME THIS YEAR, premiered at the Berlinale 2015 where it won the Audience Choice Panorama award and the Amnesty Human Rights Award. His films focus on exile and the lingering trauma of conflict, and he tells intimate, personal stories with an emphasis on humanism and its mirror image: surrealism. STRANGE CITIES ARE FAMILIAR is his second fiction film.