Presents
A Documentary Film by ALA Habdalla • 2012 – 120 min •
Cartoonists’ words and art embody the democratic aspirations of people in the Arab world as it undergoes revolutionary upheaval. This film is a contribution to a form of universal resistance
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SYNOPSIS During the two years of the production of the film – from the beginning of the summer of 2010 to that of 2012 – major upheavals occurred in the Middle East, especially in the two countries the film focuses on, Egypt and Syria. It was hardly surprising that a film on the freedom of expression and its repression in these countries should be drawn into the wake of the turbulent events of the revolutions under way there… By questioning Egyptian and Syrian cartoonists about their experiences before and after these major historic movements against despotism, the film attempts to gauge the new- found freedom that will also guarantee our future and our right of expression, and preserve us from censorship. The Syrian writer and journalist Samar Yazbek provides us with her insight and impressions from Damascus in the months preceding the Syrian revolution up until her exile in France five month.
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Hala Abdalla
Hala is born in Syria in 1956. She’s a respected figure in documentary filmmaking in the Arab world. She is producer and unit production manager (Ramadfilms, French production companies such as Grain de sable, Amip, Point du Jour and Les Films d’Ici), consultant for festivals (Cinema du Reel Paris, East film festival in New York…), directors (Frédéric Goupil, Amar Albeik, JF Delassus...) and lecturer (Eurodocmed, the documentary workshop with Beirut DC, Atelier Pile et Face – Lebanon, Sanad Film Lab at the Abu Dhabi Film Festival, DocMed, etc.) She is also directress of documentaries. Her film ‘I Am the One Who Brings Flowers to Her Grave’ (105’) won the Doc/It award at the 63rd Venice International Film Festival, Official Selection - Orizonti, Bronze in the Documentary category of the Muhr Awards at the 3rd Dubai International Film Festival, First Prize in the Documentary category of the 13th Tétouan International Mediterranean Cinema Festival and the Golden Hawk Award at the 7th Rotterdam Arab Film Festival, as well as being screened at the Villa Médicis in Rome and at MOMA in New York. Ramadfilms notably produces the films of syrian directors Omar Amiralay, Mohammad Malas et Oussama Mohammad and french ones also, like J.F Delassus, F. Goupil with companies as Grain de sable, Amip, ADR, JBA, Point du jour and Les Films d’ici.
WIDE Management 40, rue Sainte Anne – 75002 Paris T. 331 53 95 04 64 – F. 331 53 95 04 65 [email protected] www.widemanagement.com
Filmography:
2012- As If We Were Catching A Cobra (Writer and director) (Documentary / L’Oeil Sauvage)
2010- Fi Itizar Abou Zayd (Writer and director) (Documentary)
2006- Je suis celle qui porte les fleurs vers sa tombe (Writer and director) (Documentary)
WIDE Management 40, rue Sainte Anne – 75002 Paris T. 331 53 95 04 64 – F. 331 53 95 04 65 [email protected] www.widemanagement.com