“Damascus… Aleppo” film features a bus carving its path through war routes amid the Syrian crisis. The film explores the difficult, thorny and bumpy ride to which Syrians were compelled through the last eight years. Emulating the reality, the Syrian movie has already created a great resonance in the Arab and local community, and it’s about to become resonant worldwide.
Despite the steep challenges to which Syrian film production was subjected to during the Syrian crisis, some filmmakers were able to revive the Syrian film production by benefiting from the different wartime experiences.
Basel Al-Khatib, the film director, features the Syrian society within the work of a group of Syrian drama stars of different ages in order to integrate the accumulated experiences of Syria’s art generations. As an integrated work team, they will be able to re-promote Syrian Film Industry following the major setback of Syrian cinematography caused by the war on their country which reduced the number of Syrian stars and, therefore, imposed a burden on other directors and actors who remained holding up.
Al-Manar website posed a question to “Damascus… Aleppo” filmmakers in a conference held by the film’s working group in Damascus about those actors who left the country and about their potential return to Syria to contribute to the revival of Syria’s film industry. Duraid Lahham, the star actor, divided these actors into two categories. The first category encompasses of opinion-makers, and mutual respect for opinions is a must. “Syria could re-embrace them, if they want to,” he said. As for those in the second category, Lahham asserted that they participated in the war against Syria by demanding America to bombard Syria. He also assured that there’s no way he will deal with them. “Some of them carry Syrian IDs, but they could defect from Syria when funded,” he added.
The film director Basel Al-Khatib confirmed to Al-Manar TV that his “Damascus… Aleppo” is one of the many films that revolve around the Syrian crisis and stories that need to be displayed. He believes that artists will continue to carry out such artworks in the coming years because this kind of films presents not only a crisis, but also an unprecedented human tragedy. He also added that we mustn’t forget about these wounds and considerable sacrifices made by the Syrian citizen.
The press conference of the film stars was a platform for Syrian art voices that adhere to their homeland, rather than an artistic material to be displayed on screens. The feature film inaugurated the 34th Alexandria Mediterranean Film Festival and won two awards for presenting a good story that takes place on a bus going from Damascus to Aleppo, carrying passengers passengers from different social backgrounds and mindsets. Their destinies become interlaced in this satirical comedy film.
Al-Khatib has said the film is a reflection of life for Syrians and aims to show the contradictions in daily life that may seem surreal, and how real life can be as strange as fiction.
Source: Al-Manar Website
