(Zaman Al Wasl)- State of Siege, a film by the Syrian director Wassim Safadi was lately awarded a special mention at the Gothenburg Arab Film Festival, which was held in Sweden. The festival is defined as a cultural space that knows no borders to explore the Arab identity in the Arab world and the diaspora.
The jury for the second session of the festival included the Syrian film critic Randa Al-Rahwanji, the Iraqi film director "Jamal Amin" and the Omani filmmaker "Abdullah Habib".
The film speaks in 40 minutes the story of the people of the occupied Golan after the Syrian revolution. Their lives, their suffering under occupation, and how they see their future in the midst of conflicts around them were basically treated. His director, who came from the occupied Golan, told Zaman Al Wasl that the film addresses the issue of identity and belonging under occupation.
The film reviews the difficulties, conflicts and questions that are being asked by people from Golan regarding their future, and how they evaluate the events occured in their motherland Syria. The documentary also addresses the community-based crack that occurred after the Syrian revolution, and talks about how the Syrian revolution affects the course of life in the Golan.
Safadi expressed his joy that his film won the special mention award and that the disappeared voice of the Golanists began to reach the world, and that the remote viewers learned about the tragedy and the exceptional reality that the people of the Golan experienced under occupation and on the artificial borders with the motherland, Syria.
He dedicated the Film Prize to the free people of Syria who supported the freedom revolution and to the martyrs of the Syrian revolution who sacrificed their souls while demanding freedom and human dignity.
Wassim Safadi is a Syrian filmmaker who studied cinema at the University of Poitiers in France. He worked in the office of the "Al-Jazeera" in Paris and in several Arab and international channels and founded the "Lumiere Productions" company. He released many documentary films such as "Khalil Sakakini, The Diaries of a Human Being" with director "Issam Ballan", produced by "Al Jazeera Documentary”.
The festival committee indicated that most of the participating films dealt honestly with the problems of immigration, employment and asylum, which actually qualifies them to foretell the birth of educated ambitious directors, who are able to create them technically and aesthetically by conveying messages and conveying them to the audience of these films at high artistic levels.
By Faris Refai
Zaman Al Wasl
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