Best Documentary Feature Oscar nominee “Last Men in Aleppo” recently made history by becoming the first film from a Syrian directing-producing team to garner Academy recognition. Yet for the filmmakers — who say they have just learned that Syria will not expedite the travel visas of producer Kareem Abeed and star Mahmoud Al-Hattar — a pallor has been cast over the March 4 ceremony.
“When we are banned, then the freedom of expression is banned,” the film’s director, Feras Fayyad, told IndieWire by phone on February 14, calling the situation “very sad and unfair.”
Despite the urging of the film’s marketing team and Academy membership and awards manager Tom Oyer, March 2 has been designated as the visa interview date for Fayyad’s friend and producer, Abeed. While Abeed could theoretically be given permission to take an international journey, a flight to the States would prove tricker: President Trump’s Executive Order 13780, signed...
“When we are banned, then the freedom of expression is banned,” the film’s director, Feras Fayyad, told IndieWire by phone on February 14, calling the situation “very sad and unfair.”
Despite the urging of the film’s marketing team and Academy membership and awards manager Tom Oyer, March 2 has been designated as the visa interview date for Fayyad’s friend and producer, Abeed. While Abeed could theoretically be given permission to take an international journey, a flight to the States would prove tricker: President Trump’s Executive Order 13780, signed...
- 2/15/2018
- by Jenna Marotta
- Indiewire
“Last Men in Aleppo” is a movie about “searching for hope in a country without hope,” says documentarian Feras Fayyad. The film follows a group of volunteers known as the White Helmets as they try to save the lives of hundreds of victims besieged by the Syrian civil war. Its story had a special resonance for Fayyad, who spent time in prison for simply creating art about freedom of expression in a land that prohibits it. Now he is an Academy Award nominee for Best Documentary Feature. Watch our exclusive video interview with Fayyad above.
See 2018 Oscar nominations: Full list of Academy Awards nominees in all 24 categories
For years Fayyad struggled to make films under Bashar al-Assad‘s dictatorship. “As an artist and filmmaker,” he explains, “it’s not easy to say whatever you want. So you try to find alternative solutions to tell your stories.” One of those films,...
See 2018 Oscar nominations: Full list of Academy Awards nominees in all 24 categories
For years Fayyad struggled to make films under Bashar al-Assad‘s dictatorship. “As an artist and filmmaker,” he explains, “it’s not easy to say whatever you want. So you try to find alternative solutions to tell your stories.” One of those films,...
- 2/14/2018
- by Zach Laws
- Gold Derby
[Editor’s note: The following contains spoilers for “Last Men in Aleppo.”]
Serious production challenges befell numerous Oscar-nominated films of 2018, from inclement weather and tight budgets to a key actor who required replacing weeks before release day. Yet with “Last Men in Aleppo,” the first Syrian title ever to vie for Academy honors, director Feras Fayyad likely endured the most.
Read More:Review: ‘Last Men In Aleppo’ Is a Horrifying Documentary About the Banality of Syrian Civil War
Making his Sundance Grand Jury Prize-winning documentary meant returning to his home nation, where a previous film — “On the Other Side,” about a Syrian poet exiled to the Czech Republic — earned Fayyad 15 months’ imprisonment and torture. His first arrest occurred March 2011. That same month, three democratic-leaning citizens were killed by government officials while peacefully protesting the jailing of progressive teen graffiti artists. The act sparked the ongoing Syrian Civil War, strife that resulted in an estimated 465,000 deaths by year six. President Bashar al-Assad refuses to resign,...
Serious production challenges befell numerous Oscar-nominated films of 2018, from inclement weather and tight budgets to a key actor who required replacing weeks before release day. Yet with “Last Men in Aleppo,” the first Syrian title ever to vie for Academy honors, director Feras Fayyad likely endured the most.
Read More:Review: ‘Last Men In Aleppo’ Is a Horrifying Documentary About the Banality of Syrian Civil War
Making his Sundance Grand Jury Prize-winning documentary meant returning to his home nation, where a previous film — “On the Other Side,” about a Syrian poet exiled to the Czech Republic — earned Fayyad 15 months’ imprisonment and torture. His first arrest occurred March 2011. That same month, three democratic-leaning citizens were killed by government officials while peacefully protesting the jailing of progressive teen graffiti artists. The act sparked the ongoing Syrian Civil War, strife that resulted in an estimated 465,000 deaths by year six. President Bashar al-Assad refuses to resign,...
- 2/2/2018
- by Jenna Marotta
- Indiewire
Within the crowded field of documentaries vying for awards this season is a sub-skirmish of titles dealing with the war in Syria. But the only one made by a Syrian is Firas Fayyad’s Last Men in Aleppo, a Sundance 2017 Grand Jury Prize winner focusing on the fearless White Helmets, volunteers from all walks of life who, when the barrel bombs begin to drop, run toward the blast to rescue whatever survivors they can from the rubble.
It’s not the first movie Fayyad has made shedding light on oppression in his country. His documentary On the Other Side, about an exiled...
It’s not the first movie Fayyad has made shedding light on oppression in his country. His documentary On the Other Side, about an exiled...
- 1/9/2018
- by Jordan Riefe
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Radu Jude’s Scarred Hearts among titles; In Focus strand also revealed.
Sarajevo Film Festival (Aug 12-20) has unveiled its competition and in focus titles ahead of the launch of its 22nd edition next month.
The eight features in competition include two world premieres: Ivan Marinović’s debut The Black Pin; and Lukas Valenta Rinner’s A Decent Woman.
The Black Pin, from Montenegro director Marinovic, centres on a priest who finds himself at odds with the other inhabitants of his small, rural parish when he opposes a large property sale. Serbian Vladimir Vasiljević is co-producing.
Austrian filmmaker Rinner, whose Parabellum won the special jury prize at Jeonju and was up for Rotterdam’s Tiger Award in 2015, returns with A Decent Woman, the story of a housemaid working in an exclusive gated community on the outskirts of Buenos Aires who embarks on a journey of sexual liberation at a nudist swingers club.
After winning...
Sarajevo Film Festival (Aug 12-20) has unveiled its competition and in focus titles ahead of the launch of its 22nd edition next month.
The eight features in competition include two world premieres: Ivan Marinović’s debut The Black Pin; and Lukas Valenta Rinner’s A Decent Woman.
The Black Pin, from Montenegro director Marinovic, centres on a priest who finds himself at odds with the other inhabitants of his small, rural parish when he opposes a large property sale. Serbian Vladimir Vasiljević is co-producing.
Austrian filmmaker Rinner, whose Parabellum won the special jury prize at Jeonju and was up for Rotterdam’s Tiger Award in 2015, returns with A Decent Woman, the story of a housemaid working in an exclusive gated community on the outskirts of Buenos Aires who embarks on a journey of sexual liberation at a nudist swingers club.
After winning...
- 7/20/2016
- by michael.rosser@screendaily.com (Michael Rosser)
- ScreenDaily
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