(Shorts 2)
Abdallah AlKhatib
Algeria, France, Jordan
21’ | 2023
Arabic and German with English subtitles
Refugees in Germany, Aisha, her husband Jamel, and their son Samir have fled the Yarmouk camp in Syria. Welcomed into a house provided by public reception institutions, they try to acclimate to their new life des- pite the untimely visits of a rigid municipal agent. One day, the agent introduces them to Maria and So- fia, a mother and daughter who are fleeing the Rus- sian-Ukrainian war. The two families are forced to live together despite their different lifestyles and the suffe- ring they endure in exile.
Cast: Hiam Abbas, Hakim Traidia, Jaafar Al Khatib, Olga Tolmachova, Uliana Zleneska, Derek Robin
Director of Photography: Jean Combier
Composed: Nicolas Montainge
Editor: Salah Issaadi
Sound: Yoann Veyrat, Raphaeal Pibarot
Abdallah Jamal AlKhatib is a film director, writer and human rights defender. He was born in Damascus in 1989 and iden- tifies as a Palestinian-Syrian. He studied Sociology at the Uni- versity of Damascus and is currently completing his studies in Germany. Before the revolution in Syria in 2011, he worked at the UNRWA as a coordinator for a youth support center in Yar- mouk Camp. During the revolution he has co-established a trai- ning center in his besieged Damascene neighborhood under th name ‘Watad Center for Training and Development’ with the aim of skill sharing amongst activists in the light of the absence of all state educational institutions. He was selected by the German Greenpeace magazine as the Peacemaker of the Year 2014 and in 2016, he was awarded the Swedish Per Anger Prize for Human Rights. Since 2019, he has been living in Germany and working in the field of writing social studies, political articles and making documentaries. In 2021, he finishied his award-winning first feature documentary Little Palestine - Diary of a Siege which has been showcased in over 50 countries ”I ended up in the film industry by accident. I never thought I would work in cinema, let alone become a director.”