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This World: A History of Syria with Dan Snow (2013)
Dense!
I was really amazed how the BCC in such a troublesome phase of the Syrian war (2013) was able to film such a documentary. This documentary is short and dense, and provides different points of view about the Syrian revolution. We could see interviews from the heart of the events (I don't know how could Dan Snow manage that) in a time when any media coverage of the events was severely banned by the regime. Needless to say this documentary could give lots of answers and views about the bloody happenings in my beloved Syria
Rassaelle Chafahyia (1991)
Those Cursed Trains!
Set in a provincial setting in a small village in Latakia (north of Syria) we witness an intersected story with hidden allusions to industrialization overtaking the simpleness and the humbleness of the country life, the Israeli attacks and occupation of Al-Golan in the south, and a platonic love story between Ismail and his neighbor Salma.
As Ismail could not confront her with his love confessions directly - being ashamed of his big nose- he would send his friend Ghassan to convey to her what he feels in verbal letters, Ghassan in turn would fall in love with her.
Days pass, Ghassan and his family are forced abandon the village and go to his father who is an army officer fighting the Israeli occupation in the south. Then Salma and Ismail would be alone in the village.
A catchphrase that would stick in the viewers mind through out watching this film would be: "God curse the trains"
The dream sequences are really attentive to psychological issues that the three protagonists face during their everyday life, I praise Abdullatif Abdulhamid for the symbolism implied in them and the entire work.
This film is embroidered with simplicity which ignites the longing for the past days of humbleness, love, fidelity and the memories of the first love, first touch, first kiss. It's a story about friendship and how relationships between the inhabitants of a village - a village a city a district - used to be before the cursed so-called civilization took over.
Vier Minuten (2006)
Cinematic Monument
May Contain Spoilers!!!
There is no greater agony than bearing an untold story inside you " -Maya Angelou
Two women , stigma from the past, and a piano. That is all what the writer and director Chris Kraus needed to create a double miracle, cinematic and musical . Traude Krüger, the elderly piano teacher , a prisoner of the past, a captive of her own being ,and Jenny the condemned prisoner accused of a hideous crime will form a bond of invulnerable friendship on the tunes of a piano keys in one of Germany's women penitentiaries. Traude will desperately try to change the indignant manners and the troublesome behavior of the young angry girl, she will perceive an exceptional talent, a prodigy, in her and will try to crystallize it on her own terms, attempting not to make her waste such sensibility overshadowed by anger and rebellion. She'll summon her to keep her trust in somebody again , a confidential, to express her fervent feelings , what burdens her heart all through teaching her classic pieces of timeless composers, while Jenny will try to unleash her feeling through a short dance - handcuffed- or a stolen kiss , or by playing a modern pieces of music that echoes what is going on inside her of piercing noises and feelings. She'll find a cure for her tortured soul, that's when Traude, involuntarily, will open to Jenny the gates of her heart widely to unveil the secret that haunted her sleep for more than forty years, the secret which made her the lonely "sinister" she is today that made her abandon the world and give up all its pleasures, to find refuge and solace in Jenny. Both women will open up to each other facing their worst fears, pushing salt on each others' wounds. Here the director chose to summarize all of these clashes of the soul with the impulsion of four minutes, and four hasty minutes only.. that will leave its impact on the viewer's mind for days, causing a rhapsody to the ears , to replay the closing scene for more than ten times , amazed by what what the eye beholds and ear hearkens, swooned by the majestic music which the fingertips of a young rebellious woman plays.
The film was nominated for an academy award for best foreign film