Letters from the Country of Lost Dreams is a film programme curated by Charlotte Bank, organized as part of Syria: Into The Light. The film programme is presented by Atassi Foundation and Alserkal Programming.
Since the beginning of the Syrian uprising in early 2011, artists and filmmakers from the country have commented on the unfolding events.
Many of these works experiment with form and draw from different sources, including found footage, re-used films, archival images, and short animations.
SCHEDULE
Monday 27 March | The Yard | 7pm
Curator Talk + Screening
A screening of three short films by Randa Maddah, Khaled Abdulwahed and Ammar Al-Beik, preceded by a talk by Charlotte Bank who traces recent developments of Syrian video and film production, addressing how Syrians strive to resist violence and re-make the world, even in dire circumstances.
Light Horizon (2012) by Randa Maddah | 7 mins 21 secs
A young woman pursues her daily household work in an alienating setting.
Tajj (2012) by Khaled Abdulwahed | 2 mins 14 secs
A simple game in the middle of violence.
La Dolce Siria (2015) by Ammar Al-Beik | 26 mins 51 secs
An idiosyncratic parable on the Syrian present.
Monday 3 April | The Yard | 7pm
Screening
True Stories of Love, Life, Death, and sometimes Revolution (2012). Directed by Nidal Hassan. 62 mins.
This essayistic documentary by Syrian filmmaker Nidal Hassan and Danish artist Lilibeth Cuenca Rasmussen begins as an inquiry into violence against women in pre-revolution Syria. But when the Syrian uprising begins, we are confronted with swiftly changing realities as Syria witnesses waves of protest and brutal crackdowns. The narrative itself twists and turns in a similar manner, and the lines between Nidal Hassan’s life and the film become increasingly blurred.
Soon Hassan finds himself a chronicler in the midst of a revolt. His friends are thrown behind bars for their activism as Assad’s thugs terrorize the population. In prison, Hassan scribbles the storyline on a scrap of paper given to him by the warden and subsequently flees to Lebanon and Germany. He is never merely an observer, but always a part of the film and a part of the uprising, deeply entrenched in his own reflections on a society in upheaval.
The film program also includes a video presented on loop inside the exhibition Syria: Into the Light: La ville amoureuse (2013) by Maryam Samaan.
Charlotte Bank is an art historian and independent curator, living and working between Berlin and Geneva. Until 2011, she was partly based in Damascus. Her work is focused on modern and contemporary artistic practice from the Middle East with a special emphasis on the independent contemporary art scene since 2000 in its global context.
