THE FILMMAKERS
Yasmin Fedda
Director
Director Yasmin Fedda is an award winning filmmaker whose work has focused on themes from Edinburgh bakeries (Breadmakers; 2007) to Syrian monasteries (A Tale of Two Syrias; 2012), theatre (Queens of Syria, 2014); geek anarchism (Steal from the Capitalists; 2015) to forcible disappearance (Ayouni: My Eyes, My Love; 2020). Her films have been BAFTA-nominated and screened at international festivals including Sundance & Edinburgh FF. She occasionally makes broadcast films for the BBC and Al Jazeera English. Yasmin has held artist residences at the Mothlight Micro Cinema, Detroit, and at British School at Rome, Italy. Yasmin has taught different aspects of film in various settings around the world including with: Syria Mobile Film Festival, British Council, Scottish Documentary Institute, Bidayyat for Audiovisual Arts, Malta City of Culture, and TPD Vietnam, amongst others. Yasmin has a PhD in Trans-disciplinary Documentary and is a lecturer in Film Practice at Queen Mary University. She was co- founder and programmer of Highlight Arts and is part of production company Black Leaf Films .
Elhum Shakerifar
Producer
Producer Elhum Shakerifar is a BAFTA nominated producer and curator. Recent credits include BIFA winner Almost Heaven (Carol Salter, 2017) and BFI/Sundance funded Even When I Fall (Sky Neal and Kate McLarnon, 2017). In 2015, she self-distributed her BAFTA-nominated production A Syrian Love Story (Sean McAllister, 2015) to such high visibility that it was named Guardian's #3 Best Film of the year. She also produced McAllister’s 2018 A Northern Soul for BBC2, which opened Doc/Fest 2018. Her work has been broadcast internationally and screened at festivals including Berlinale, IDFA and Rotterdam. Elhum is the MENA / Iran programme advisor for London Film Festival and Film Curator for Shubbak, festival of contemporary Arab culture. In 2017, she was nominated for the Arab British Centre’s Award for Culture and was recipient of the Women in Film and TV BBC Factual Award. She was recipient of the 2016 BFI Vision Award and was named a Producer on the Rise in Screen International’s 2018 Brit50 list. www.hakawati.co.uk
Hugh Hartford
Producer
Producer Hugh Hartford is a creative producer of social documentary. His credits include the feature films Thank You For The Rain (ZDF/ARTE), Ping Pong, (Film4), and Ayouni. He’s had films released theatrically worldwide and screened documentaries at Hotdocs, Palm Springs, Zanzibar IFF; the UN, The Hague, and the UK Parliament. Hugh has worked with broadcasters around the world including BBC, ARTE, PBS, NRK, NBC, TVO, NHK, Channel 4. Hugh has secured finance from Creative Europe (2016 & 2018), British Film Institute, Norwegian Film Institute, Doha Film Institute, SANAD - Abu Dhabi Film Fund, Fritt Ord, Bertha Connect, Doc Society and Goodpitch (2012, 2016 & 2017). He is a committee member of the Royal Anthropological Institute film program. www.banyak.co.uk
AYOUNI | Director’s Note
This started as another film. A film about a priest I knew in Syria – Father Paolo Dall’Oglio, who had set up a well known monastic community that focused on interfaith dialogue. In 2011, he became involved in the Syrian revolution and passionately called for the world to respond to the atrocities happening in the country, to support human rights. He was expelled from Syria, his home of over 30 years. He was loved by so many Syrians. I met and filmed him in Paris shortly after he had left Syria. We spoke about the situation, his position, his take on things. I didn’t think it would be the last time I saw him, but I knew he was committed to what he believed in, whatever the cost. A couple of months later, in July 2013, he had gone to Raqqa (briefly liberated, before its total takeover by Daesh) to negotiate for the release of journalists kidnapped in the city. He leaves for the meeting and is never heard from again – kidnapped, with only rumours about his fate. Forcibly disappeared.
Grappling with the strange, complicated emotions of not knowing what happened, not knowing what to do, I travelled to Iraq, Turkey, Jordan, Italy, and Lebanon to meet people who knew Paolo. This led me to meet others whose family members were forcibly disappeared. The huge numbers were staggering, and were not abating. This led me to human rights lawyer Noura, wife of Bassel, a good of friend of my friends. Bassel was a hacker and open source developer. He supported people during the protests in Damascus and Deraa to get video evidence out of areas under siege, to document the violence that was being meted out by regime forces. He had been in prison in Damascus since 2012, and in 2015 he was taken away from his cell. He was disappeared within the state’s detention system. These stories also took me across Europe, to Italy, the UK, France and Germany. It became clear to me that this is not only a Syrian story – it is internationally interconnected.
Both Paolo and Bassel supported freedom of expression, freedom of conscience. Both supported human rights. I had known and filmed with Paolo over a decade in Syria, and had also met Bassel, and knew his community. This film introduces us to them in their own words before they are disappeared. Their stories are picked up by Bassel’s wife, Noura Ghazi Safadi, and Paolo’s sister, Machi Dall’Oglio – where it is love, hope and campaigning that helps them cope, and to ensure that their voices don’t disappear.
Making Ayouni broke my heart and then gave me hope again.
كلمة المخرجة
بدأ هذا فيلمًا آخر. فيلم عن كاهن عرفته في سوريا - الأب باولو دالوليو، الذي أسس مجتمعًا رهبانيًا معروفًا ركز على الحوار بين الأديان. انخرط في عام 2011، في الثورة السورية ودعا العالم، بكل إخلاص، للتصدي للفظائع التي تحدث في البلاد، ولدعم حقوق الإنسان. طُرد من سوريا، وطنه لأكثر من 30 عامًا. كان محبوبا من قبل الكثير من السوريين. التقيت به وصورت معه في باريس بعد وقت قصير من مغادرته سوريا. تحدثنا عن الوضع، وعن موقفه وعن رأيه في بعض الأمور. لم أتصور حينها أنها ستكون آخر مرة آراه فيها، لكنني كنت أعلم أنه ملتزم بما هو مؤمن به مهما كان الثمن. ذهب بعد ذلك بشهرين، في تموز/ يوليو 2013، إلى الرقة (التي حررت لفترة وجيزة، قبل استيلاء داعش عليها بالكامل)، من أجل التفاوض على إطلاق سراح الصحفيين المختطفين في المدينة. غادر إلى الاجتماع ولم يُعرف عنه شيئًا منذ ذلك الحين- اختطف ، ولا شيء سوى الشائعات عن مصيره. اختفى قسرًا
تنازعتني عواطف معقدة وغريبة بسبب عدم معرفة ما حدث، وعدم معرفة ما ينبغي علي فعله، فسافرت إلى العراق وتركيا والأردن وإيطاليا ولبنان لمقابلة أشخاص عرفوا باولو. قادني هذا إلى مقابلة أشخاص آخرين اختفى أفراد أسرهم قسرًا. كانت الأعداد الضخمة مهولة، ولا تتناقص. أوصلني هذا إلى نورا، محامية حقوق الإنسان، وزوجة باسل، وهي صديقة مقربة لأصدقائي. كان باسل هاكرًا ومطور برمجيات مفتوحة المصدر. دعم الناس في أثناء الاحتجاجات في دمشق ودرعا للحصول على أدلة مصورة بالفيديو من المناطق المحاصرة، بغية توثيق العنف الذي كانت تمارسه قوات النظام. لقد اعتقل في دمشق منذ عام 2012. وأخذوه من زنزانته في عام 2015. واختفى داخل مراكز الاعتقال في الدولة. قادتني هذه القصص أيضًا إلى أوروبا، إلى إيطاليا والمملكة المتحدة وفرنسا وألمانيا. وتبين لي أن هذه ليست قصة سورية فحسب – بل قصة مترابطة عالميًا
دعم كل من باولو وباسل حرية التعبير وحرية الضمير. كما دعما حقوق الإنسان. لقد عرفت باولو وصورت معه على مدى عقد من الزمان في سوريا، كما التقيت أيضًا باسل، وعرفت مجتمعه. يعرفنا هذا الفيلم بهما بأفكارهما وكلماتهما الخاصة قبل اختفائهما. تجمع نورا غازي صفدي وماكي شقيقة باولو دالوليو قصصهما - يساعدهما الحب والأمل وتنظيم الحملات على التحمل، وعلى ضمان عدم اختفاء صوتيهما
كسر العمل في فيلم عيوني قلبي لكنه أحيا الأمل فيّ من جديد
