Screening of Three Short Films by Omar Amiralay
Thursday 27 July 2023 at 19:00.
Nadi Lekol Nas and the Sursock Museum are pleased to invite you to a two-day program on the life and work of late Syrian filmmaker Omar Amiralay. On Wednesday 26 July, we will be presenting the Lebanese premiere of Omar Amiralay: Sorrow, Time, Silence (2021) in the presence of the filmmaker Hala Alabdalla. On Thursday 27 July, we will be screening three short films by Omar Amiralay, Le plat de sardines, Il y’a tant de choses encore à raconter, and Les poules.
Le plat de sardines
Dir. Omar Amiralay, 1998
17', France
In the company of fellow Syrian filmmaker Mohammad Malas, Omar Amiralay revisits the ruins of the destroyed Golan village of Quneytra, occupied by Israel and then abandoned following the 1973 war.
Il y’a tant de choses encore à raconter
Dir. Omar Amiralay, 1997
52’, Syria
A few months before the passing of his friend and close collaborator dramaturge Saadallah Wannus, Amiralay listens to his friend’s somber and relentless words, a farewell to a generation for whom the Arab-Israeli conflict has been the source of all disillusion.
Les poules
Dir. Omar Amiralay, 1977
40', Syria
In this social commentary on economic policies, Amiralay documents the struggling livelihoods of farmers in Sadad. The Syrian government encouraged the inhabitants of this rural Syrian village to abandon their traditional activities and embark resolutely on chicken breeding and egg production.
Omar Amiralay (1944-2011) was a pioneering Syrian documentary filmmaker, noted for the strong political criticism in his films and played a prominent role in the events of the Damascus Spring of 2000. His activism defending Syrian civil rights and criticizing the Baathist regime caused his work to be indefinitely banned in Syria. As a driving force of nonfiction auteur cinema, his work has influenced generations of filmmakers in the Arab world.
Screening is free of charge
In Arabic with French subtitles