Our Terrible Country (Baladna alraheeb)

New screening and conversation series taking place at Hot Docs Ted Rogers Cinema (all films) and Innis Town Hall (panel discussion): Bidayyat [Beginnings] in Syrian Revolutionary Nonfiction. Supported by JHI's Program for the Arts. The U of Toronto community can get free tickets to the screenings by using code:  BIDAYYATC

Two activists from two different generations embark on a perilous journey as the situation in Syria becomes more fraught with danger.

In Douma, a suburb of Damascus outside Assad regime control, where the dissident intellectuals Yassin al-Haj Saleh and his wife Samira Khalil have sought shelter, they meet the young photographer and fighter Ziad Homsi.

Yassin and Ziad travel to Raqqa, Yassin’s hometown newly occupied by ISIS. Deciding to go into exile in Turkey, Yassin hopes for a reunion with Samira who remained in Douma; while Ziad hopes to travel back to Douma. But in the place Yassin calls “our terrible country,” choices have tragic consequences.

In Arabic with English subtitles.

Co-director Mohammad Ali Atassi will participate in a post-screening Q&A.

• Directed By: Mohammad Ali Atassi, Ziad Homsi
• 2014
• Syria
• 85 minutes

Other events in this series:

Nov 23 | 6:45pm - Still Recording: Two art students living a carefree life in Damascus decide to join the Syrian revolution by moving to Douma, a working-class suburb under rebel rule. Tickets https://hotdocs.ca/whats-on/films/still-recording

Nov 24 | 3:00pm - Panel Discussion at Innis Town Hall. Bidayyat: A Smuggler Between Generations. Participants: Saeed al-Batal, Mohammad Ali Atassi, Rania Stephan, Stefan Tarnowski

Nov 24 | 6:45pm - In Fields of Words: Conversations with Samar Yazbek (l-Sahel al-Mumtani'): A film-conversation between a writer and filmmaker questioning the relations between language and cinema as tools to represent war and violence. Tickets https://hotdocs.ca/whats-on/films/in-fields-of-words