Rethink Rebuild Society is pleased to invite you to a screening of the film:
A Syrian Love Story
Filmed by Sean McAllister
Runtime: 1hr 16min. In English and Arabic with English subtitle.
Certificate: 12A. (Contains strong language, references to torture, images of real dead bodies. For more information please see http://www.bbfc.co.uk/releases/syrian-love-story-2015).
Where: RR Multi-facility room, Unit 7, Longsight Business Park, Hamilton Road, Manchester, M13 0PD
When: Sunday 28 February at 6:30 pm
The screening will be followed by a short discussion in English and We are very pleased that Raghda Hassan, the Syrian activist about whom the film is made, will join the post-film dicussion through Skype.
Tea, coffee and biscuits are also provided. Donations encouraged to cover our expenses (£1 per person).
NB. Please arrive on time as the film will start at 6:45 pm exactly.
“Filmed over a period of five years, this intimate and insightful documentary perfectly balances the personal and the political, telling its tale of national and international upheavals through their impact on individuals at the cutting edge of change. This is a profoundly moving account of two love stories: that between the film’s central couple, Amer and Raghda, who are torn apart by imprisonment and exile; the other being their love for Syria, which casts a long shadow over their lives, their marriage and their children.” Mark Kermode, The Guardian
The film:
Amer, 45, met Raghda, 40, in a Syrian prison cell 15 years ago. He first saw her bloodied face after a beating when she was placed in a neighbouring cell. Over months they communicated through a tiny hole they’d secretly made in the wall. They fell in love and when released got married and started a family together.
This film tells the poignant story of their family torn apart by the tyrannical Assad dictatorship. Filming began in Syria in 2009, prior to wave of revolutions and changes in the Arab world – at the time, Raghda was a political prisoner and Amer was caring for their young children alone. We filmed in the thriving heart of the Yarmouk Camp in Damascus – now an infamous news story as its inhabitants are being starved to death by the Assad regime. At 4 and 14, Bob and Kaka have already spent their whole lives watching either their father or mother go to prison for their political beliefs. Quiet, considerate and mature, Kaka tells me how he is prepared to follow his mother and father to prison for the price of freedom.
This intimate family portrait helps us to understand why people are literally dying for change in the Arab world. Yet, as Raghda is released from prison, filmmaker Sean McAllister himself is arrested for filming and the political pressure around all activists intensifies. The family flee to Lebanon, and then to France where they are given political asylum in the sleepy town of Albi, where they now watch the revolution from afar, waiting for Assad to fall.
However, in exile, Raghda’s mental health suffers. She attempts suicide. We see their new life in France develop but the war is now between them. In finding the freedom they fought so hard for, their relationship is beginning to fall apart.
For Raghda and Amer, it is a journey of hope, dreams and despair: for the revolution, their homeland and each other.
So come along to what promises to be a great film and a thought-provoking discussion about Syria, freedom and love.
