Statement 2019
Transcription of the statement for the 21st Biennial
In my point of view, the political shapes up your personal life. I try to escape the collective tragedy by finding a personal and physical one, but without success, because it’s all connected, and once you deal with your personal pain you realize that it is a part of a bigger pain. Patriarchy, dictatorship, operation, imprisonment are key subjects of the work At Last, that I present at the 21st Biennial, where I trace a non-linear narrative that takes the viewer through a tragic history.
When it comes to the technical realization of the movie, due to Syria’s political context, I couldn't film in my city, Damascus; instead I used personal archive when I was referring to the past or to my city. But it's part of my concept to resort to archive to talk about Syria and the past, whereas I used footage from Beirut to talk about the present.
From that, time is a very important theme in my film: I use the present to talk about the past, and I visit the past to talk about the present. For me, it's a constant loop—the past is the present and the present is the past. Time is passing but nothing is happening. I'm trapped. That's why I don't see a future, and that's why the future is not present in my film.