In Syria, wounded by the tyrannical regime, Omar Amiralay dedicated his life to his country and to cinema. Forty years of political commitment and documentary filmmaking. Omar died in 2011, five weeks before the Syrian revolution.
This is not a portrait of the Syrian director Omar Amiralay. This is not a cross-section of the current Syrian society, nor a longitudinal section of the fate of generations through fifty years under the yoke of a single political regime. This is not an intimate and free dialogue between two friends united by the sacred fire of cinema and a passion for freedom. This is not a testimony about a son’s love for his mother or his unwavering belief in justice.
This is a feature-length documentary that aspires to all of these things at once, like the braid of a young Syrian girl. Omar Amiralay was haunted by the Syrian cause, by the search for freedom and justice. He was one of the main opponents of the Al Assad family and passed away in 2011. He was also a great director, a director from the “Avant-Garde’‘. This film shows private moments of Hala Alabdalla’s discussions with Omar before his death, having now a unique testimony of his life. At the same time, it is a broader reflection about love and death, politics and cinema. This is a film, a letter, about the bitter pain of absence.
