A short film on the lives of several people struggling to survive in the “war-torn” Levant region has been selected for the Big Sky Documentary film festival in the US where the film will have its North American premier.
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“We are honored and thrilled to have the film’s North American premiere at Big Sky Documentary film festival,” film maker Adla Massoud told Al Arabiya English. “People deciding that they can carry on after what’s happened. This film highlights moments in life when we need hope and understanding to carry on.”
The film, called ‘Wild is the Spring,’ shows snapshots into the lives of several characters from different countries, ethnic and religious backgrounds in Lebanon, Syria and Iraq.
“I picked characters from different countries and different ethnic and religious communities because I wanted to highlight the pluralistic nature of the region,” the film maker said.
Film characters
One of the film characters is a Christian businessman from the Bekaa region in Lebanon where he tells the story of how he tried his best to protect his town and community from the threat of ISIS.
Another character is a Syrian refugee boy from Idlib.
“I wanted to highlight what it’s like for the youth of the region who are living in limbo and wasting away because of war,” the film maker told Al Arabiya English. “They are the future, and we should be investing in the education of the youth.”
The third character is a young Yazidi girl named Shilan who was a former child soldier.
“All she wanted to do was to go to school but ended up been forced by her abusive father to fight ISIS with the [Syrian Kurdish militia] YPG,” Massoud added.
A Yazidi beekeeper named Abdallah Schrem is the fourth character in the film. He tells the story of how he risked his life to save hundreds of Yazidi women from the hands of ISIS.
This short documentary was intended to be a part of a longer feature length film but due to COVID and lack of funding, Massoud made it into a short film.
“The stories might feel incomplete but at least the film gets the message out,” she said.
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