Cinematic capture of radical jihadism and terrorist training in Syria
View(s):
Director Talal Derki
‘Of Fathers and Sons’ Award winning Arabic docudrama online screening from Goethe Institute
Multi awarded Arabic-language German-Syrian documentary film ‘Of Fathers and Sons’ directed by Talal Derki will be screened at 6.30 pm via online on April 21 by the Goethe Institute in Colombo.
Personal journey through a devastated country and a troubled society, looking for answers to his desperate questions about the future of his country and the future of his family who had to flee into exile, Talal Derki narrates this film about radical jihadism and terrorist training in Syria.
Returning to his homeland where he gained the trust of a radical Islamist family, sharing their daily life for over two years, Talal’s camera focuses mainly on the children, providing an extremely rare insight into what it means to grow up with a father whose only dream is to establish an Islamic Caliphate. Osama (13) and his brother Ayman (12) are in the centre of the story. They both love and admire their father and obey his words, but while Osama seems to follow the path of Jihad, Ayman wants to go back to school. The film captures the moment when the children have to let go of their youth and are finally turned into Jihadi fighters. No matter how close the war comes—one thing they have already learned: they must not cry.
The film won the World Cinema Documentary Grand Jury Prize, Sundance Institute Open Borders Fellowship Presented by Netflix at the Sundance Film Festival in 2018, “Grand Seal” award at the 14th Zagreb Dox (2018) and won the first prize at the 1st AJB DOC Festival (2018).
It was also nominated for the Best Documentary at the 31st European Film Awards, the Best Documentary Feature at the 34th Independent Spirit Awards, the Best Documentary Feature at the 91st Academy Awards.
The film was also the winner of the Award for Best Documentary Film and the Award for Best Editing at the 69th German Film Award in 2019.
Born in Damascus and based in Berlin since 2014, Talal studied film directing in Athens and worked as an assistant director for many feature film productions and was a director for different Arab TV programmes between 2009 and 2011. He worked as a freelance cameraman for CNN and Thomson & Reuters. Talal Derkis short films and feature length documentaries received many awards at a variety of festivals. His feature documentary RETURN TO HOMS has won the Sundance Film Festival’s World Cinema Grand Jury Prize in 2014. The same year, he was a member of the international Jury at IDFA.
The 2017 joint production of Germany, Syria and Lebanon, the film in Arabic is subtitled in English.
The film can watched by registration only and can join by clicking the link https://forms.gle/LDevLAsEwQTcBGqi6. It also can be watched using the Vimeo link which will be sent on April 21 at 6.30 pm IST.
After the first screening on April 21 from 6.30 pm IST, from 8:00 pm IST, film lovers can join the film maker for a live discussion on Facebook which will be open to all.
The discussion could be joined via https://www.facebook.com/goetheinstitut.Kolkata/ and questions for the director could be forwarded to the director by writing in the ‘comment’ section while the live stream of the discussion is being broadcasted.
