Film Program 1 | 7-12

Event: Film Program 1 | 7-12
Date: 07-Dec-2011
Time: 20:30-22:30
Location: Tropentheater | Amsterdam

Step by Step (Khutwa Khutwa) 
Ossama Mohammed |Syria |1978 |22’ |B&W |English subtitles

Each day children trudge the muddied village paths to go to school, but as Step by Step makes painfully clear, their only real escape from crushing poverty is to join the army. A frightening, captivating and insightful portrait of how the Baath regime transformed generations of peasants into citizen-soldiers and sent the poor in droves to provincial cities as migrant laborers.

Today and Everyday (Al-Yaom wa Kull Yaom) 
Ossama Mohammed |Syria |1986 |13’ |Color |No dialogue 

The filmmaker’s directorial debut after joining the National Film Organization, this short documentary follows young children in preschool as they become exposed for the first time to notions of learning, reciting, and proper pronunciation and molded into conformity.

The Chickens (al-Dajaj)
Omar Amiralay |Syria |1977| 40’ |B&W | English subtitles

Produced by Syrian television, this film remains banned in Syria. The inhabitants of Sadad, a village in the Syrian countryside, are seduced by promises that chicken farming will make them rich. After they abandon their usual activities, their investment turns to disaster under the watchful gaze of government officials driving Mercedes cars. Under the guise of documenting chicken farms, the filmmaker delivers a scathing critique of his government.  

After Talk with filmmaker Ossama Mohamed