Syrian Doc Days is presenting a program of four short autobiographical films.
This year, the festival has a collaboration with Odense International Film Festival OFF24, where you can watch four short documentaries and engage in a Q&A session with the director Nour Alkheder following the screenings.
Ammar Obeid, Germany, France 2022, 20 min
Mudar is a Syrian actor, flew to Germany by a visa from Beirut, he researches refugee’s journeys who came walking on their feet, for his theatre 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 back yard.
BACK
Yazan Rabee, Netherlands 2022, 7 min
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?
ON THE EADGE OF LIFE, I SAW A FILM
Razan Hassan, Netherlands 2023, 22 min
This poetic film takes us on an emotional journey of a girl contemplating death. Her jump from the edge allows her to fly around and meet different people. These encounters challenge her perspective on her narrative in life, death and transformation.
I LOVE YOU MORE
Nour Alkheder, Netherlands 2023, 17 min
Nour’s journey to recognition of her longing for her father and Syria, where she confronts loss and the emotional impact of absence.
Director Nour Alkheder approaches subjects intimately and emotionally; she creates an open atmosphere. Her authentic work explores deep human emotions and shows people at their most honest. Her film ‘I Love You More (2023) is about tangible nostalgia, a central theme in her work. She graduated from the Netherlands Film Academy with ‘Draw Me a Homeland-2024’, a story about integration and self-discovery in a strange new country. Nour balances documentary reality with fiction in her films. Nour’s stories are linked to emotions or feelings, not necessarily to characters. She ensures that viewers can empathize with the characters and find recognition in their internal world.
