“Najeeb Al-Rayyes: A Journey in a Hard Time” is a documentary film by the Syrian director, Alfouz Tanjour, that tells the history of Syria after independence and before Hafez al-Assad’s reign through the story of a rebel and a patriot journalist and in a way that highlights the heavy losses that the country suffers today.
After working on the lyrical documentary “A Memory in Khaki”, director Tanjour worked with producer Louay Haffar to make a series of documentary films that shed light on the modern history of Syria from independence to present day.
Tanjour said that Najeeb al-Rayyes was not only one of the pillars of Syrian press in the first half of the 20th century, but he was also one of the most prominent political figures in Syria, as both a member of the people’s assembly and a political activist, who rebelled against French occupation and was banished to prison in the isle of Arwad.
Tanjour explained that by telling the story of this controversial journalist and the time in which he lived, he wanted to tell the story of Syria, where the two intersect and what one can reveal of the other. The director explained that the book by Journalist Souad Jarrous, Syria in the Time of Najeeb al-Rayyes, has inspired him to work on his film, since it was not merely a record but an invocation of a bygone time that smelled of ancient alleyways and echoed the music of those days, the rhythm of life and its people. According to Tanjour, translating that feeling to the screen was a challenge. He wanted to reflect the emotions connected with the era visually to attract the viewer and to immerse them into that period of history. In addition, he wanted to show how the natural development of Syrian society was cut short after the independence by the assassinations, coups, and the conflicts within the ruling regimes.
The documentary, which took two years to finish, was produced and screened by Al Jazeera. The decision to include journalist Souad Jarrous in the film was risky since she is currently living in Syria. Even getting access to the archives of Najeeb al-Rayyes was difficult since it was spread over different locations from France to Australia, but eventually they were able to obtain the necessary information to tell his story.
Tanjour explained that he wanted to present a nuanced narrative, using it as a mirror that reflects the current reality and to accentuate the junctions where past and present meet as well as the possible roots of the tragedy that the Syrian people now suffer, only to find that both past and present tragedies share the same causes in different forms and that the past does indeed repeat itself.
This project of documentary films is, according to Tanjour, one that is special to him, revolving around his homeland, its story and its people, taking slices from its history to present symbolic figures, not as a portrait, but as a reflection of the country as a whole.
Zaman Al Wasl
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