A tight-knit group of young Syrian women embarks upon a radical project: producing a play that lays bare the culture of misogyny and sexual abuse that has blighted the lives of females in their country for generations. Farah, Eliana, Inana, Souhir, and Grace want to blow the whistle on women's oppression, though they know their production will make it even harder for them to get work. Collaborating with exiled Syrian filmmakers Heba Khaled and Talal Derki – and Ali Wajeeh on the ground in Damascus – the women fan out through the war-weary city to gather individual stories that will form the basis of their play. They record testimonies from across the socio-economic spectrum, from actresses to factory workers to stay-at-home mothers. What emerges are variations of the same harrowing tale: stories of abuse, blackmail and even imprisonment at hands of husbands, brothers, fathers, employers, and powerful officials who wield unchecked patriarchal power to keep them trapped without access to justice. But the issues explored in both the play and film are closer than they appear... Just as the team of filmmakers and their subjects are making progress in their collaborative exposé, one member of the group unexpectedly quits the project. As the truth behind her decision is revealed, everyone involved is forced to confront – in painfully intimate terms – the very exploitation they’ve been documenting.
Under the Sky of Damascus
Under the Sky of Damascus
25th TiDF: International Premiere
Screening Schedule
No physical screenings scheduled. |
- Direction: Heba Khaled, Talal Derki, Ali Wajeeh
- Script: Heba Khaled
- Cinematography: Raed Sandeed
- Editing: Marion Tuor
- Sound: Mia Joanna Koskela
- Music: Ari Jan
- Production: Real Lava, Jouzour Film
- Producers: Sigrid Dyekjaer, Talal Derki, Heba Khaled, Beth Earl
- Co-production: Rustic Canyon Pictures, Sama Art
- Executive producer: Kelsey Koenig, Jenny Raskin, Philippe Levasseur, Romain Bessi, Maiken Baird, Ruba El-Khash
- Narration: Heba Khaled
- Format: DCP
- Color: Color
- Production Country: Denmark, Germany, USA, Syria
- Production Year: 2023
- Duration: 88'
- Contact: Submarine Entertainment
Heba Khaled
Filmography
2018 People of the Wasteland (short)
2023 Under the Sky of Damascus (co-direction)
2023 Under the Sky of Damascus (co-direction)
Talal Derki
Filmography
2011 Hero of the Sea (short)
2013 Return to Homs
2016 Ode to Lesvos (short)
2017 Of Fathers and Sons
2023 Under the Sky of Damascus (co-direction)
2013 Return to Homs
2016 Ode to Lesvos (short)
2017 Of Fathers and Sons
2023 Under the Sky of Damascus (co-direction)
Ali Wajeeh
Filmography
2023 Under the Sky of Damascus (co-direction)