Our Terrible Country

Sound designer: Nadim Mishlawe
Audio postproduction: DB Studios
Postproduction: The postoffice
Translation: Stefan Tarnowski
Executive Producers: Christin Luettich

Festivals:

2014 FID Marseille (Grand Prix) / 2014 Gindou Cinema France / 2014 Golden Boll International Film Festival Adana / 2014 Kaunas International Film Festival / 2014 War on Screen France / 2014 Doc Lisboa / 2014 Sao Paolo International Film Festival / 2014 Cinemed Montpellier (Prix Ulysse) / 2014 Dok Leipzig / 2014 Viennale / 2014 Forum Doc Brazil (Best Film) / 2014 Festival des 3 Continents / 2014 Carthage Film Festival / 2014 Porto-Post-Doc Film & Media Festival (Honorable Mention) / 2014 Watch Docs Human Rights International Film Festival-Warsaw / 2014 Karama Human Rights Film Festival-Jordan / 2015 Festival First Look-Museum of the Moving Image NY

Spanish premiere

Trapped between the terrorism of the official State and the Islamic State, a Syrian intellectual and a young Syrian photographer try to escape from a country that is crumbling. The former, Yassin Haj Saleh, had his passport taken from him decades ago and hence the possibility to leave the country legally; the latter, Ziad Homsi, has just exchanged the rifle with which he fought against Assad for a camera. For him, Yassin is an image of another Syria, for which he is willing to risk his life at all costs. There is a 32 year age difference between the intellectual and the young rebel, but their flight from the demons of their country bring them together.

MOHAMMAD ALI ATASSI 

Born in 1967 in Damascus, Syria. Since 2000, he has been writing for several Arab and international newspapers on political and cultural topics. In 2001, he made a documentary film on the Syrian dissident Riad Turk elaborating the latter’s prison experience of 18 years in Syrian prisons while Atassi explored Turk’s positions on the Syrian revolution in a second documentary movie in 2012 called Ibn Al Am online. 

Filmography:

• Ibn Al Am Online (2012)
• Waiting for Abu Zaid (2010)
• Ibn Al Am (2001)

ZIAD HOMSI ALI

Born in 1989 in Damascus (Syria). Since the beginning of the Syrian Revolution in March 2011, he has become one of the most important photographers in his hometown, which is the suburb of Douma, known to be one of the centers of the uprising. His pictures have been shown in various exhibitions in Europe and in 2012 he has also realized a short documentary on the security crackdown and massacres that was inflicted on the residents of the city of Douma by the Syrian security forces.   

Filmography:

• Oh Douma (2012)