The district of Yarmouk (Damascus, Syria) sheltered the biggest Palestinian refugee camp in the world from 1957 to 2018.
When the Syrian revolution broke out, the regime of Bashar Al-Assad saw Yarmouk as a refuge of rebels and resistance and set up a siege from 2013 on. Gradually deprived of food, medicine and electricity, Yarmouk was cut off from the rest of the world.
Abdallah Al-Khatib was born in Yarmouk and lived there until his expulsion by Daesh in 2015. Between 2011 and 2015, he and his friends documented the daily life of the besieged inhabitants, who decided to face bombing, displacement and hunger with rallying, study, music, love and joy.
Hundreds of lives were irredeemably transformed by war and siege – from Abdallah’s mother, who turned into a nurse taking care of the elderly at the camp, to the fiercest activists whose passion for Palestine got gradually undermined by hunger…
SCREENINGS & AWARDS
World Premiere: Visions du Réel – April 2021
2021 ACID Cannes
2021 Dokufest
2021 Syrian Doc Days, Denmark (Danish Premiere)
2021 Guanajuato International Film Festival
2021 Filmfest Hamburg
2021 Vancouver International Film Festival (North American Premiere)
2021 International Film Festival Innsbruck (Austrian Premiere)
2021 BFI London (UK Premiere)
2021 Festival de Cinéma En ville! (Belgium Premiere)
2021 Yamagata IDFF
2021 FIFIB – Festival International du Film Indépendant de Bordeaux
2021 West Lake IDF (Chinese Premiere)
2021 Mostra – São Paulo IFF
2021 MIDBO International Documentary Film Festival Bogotá
2021 Carthage Film Festival
2021 Palestine Cinema Days
2021 Cork Film Festival
2021 Ajyal Film Festival (MENA Premiere)
2021 RIDM (Canadian Premiere)
2021 IDFA (Dutch Premiere)
2021 Movies on War
2021 London Palestine Film Festival
2021 Torino Film Festival
2021 CINEMAMED Festival du cinéma méditerranéen
2022 ReFrame Film Festival
2022 Reel Palestine Film Festival
2022 Festival Rabat
2022 Santa Barbara IFF
2022 MiradasDoc
2022 International Film Festival Ottawa
2022 Arab Film Days Oslo (Norwegian premiere)
2022 Thin Line Festival
2022 Sofia International Film Festival – Cinema Politica
2022 Istanbul Film Festival (Turkish Premiere)
2022 Festival cinéma du monde de Sherbrooke
2022 Movies that Matter
2022 Arab Film Festival Berlin ALFILM
2022 MOOOV Film Festival
2022 Jeonju IFF
2022 Taiwan International Documentary Festival
2022 Ethnocineca
2022 One World Romania
2022 Mammoth Lakes Film Festival
2022 Beirut Cinema Days
2022 Triangle Human Rights Film Festival
2022 Iceland Documentary Film Festival IceDocs
2022 Dokumentarist Istanbul
2022 Maine International Film Festival
2022 Filmtage des Mittelmeeres
2022 Cinéma Sous Les Étoiles
2022 Toronto Palestine FF
2022 Boston Palestine FF
2022 Film Festival Diritti Umani Lugano
2022 Palestinian Film Festival Australia
2022 Arab Film Festival hosted by AFMI
2022 Dingle IFF
2022 Verzió Film Festival
2022 Athens Palestine Film Festival
2022 Palestine Filmer C’est Exister
2023 RAI Film Festival
2023 Festival Imagésanté
2023 Jerusalem Arab Film Festival
2023 Semana de Cine Euro-Árabe AMAL, Santiago de Compostela – “Amal Euro Arab Festival”
2024 Faito Doc Festival
And more: Arabian Nights showcase at Copenhagen Cinematheque
AWARDS
- Interreligious Award, Visions du Réel 2021
JURY STATEMENT
“People in the sealed-off Yarmuk refugee camp assert their humanity in the Syrian civil war despite hunger and lack of prospects, while the humanitarian world remains on the sidelines. When a small street choir sings to piano accompaniment and the noise of bombs, their song joins the sad chorale of similar sieges in world history.”
- Documentary Grand Prize and the Student Prize at Festival 2 Cinéma de Valenciennes 2021
- Special Jury Mention, International Feature Documentary competition, Guanajuato International Film Festival 2021
JURY STATEMENT
“We would also like to award a special mention to Little Palestine, Diary of a Siege, directed by Abdallah Al-Khatib, in recognition of the film’s sacred role in bearing witness to unspeakable atrocity.”
- Press Jury Award at War on Screen Film Festival 2021
- Commerzbank Audience Award at Filmfest Hamburg 2021
- Best Film at Documentary Competition at IFFI – International Film Festival Innsbruck 2021
- Special Mention at the Subversive Festival 2021
- Best Film at the Yamagata International Documentary Film Festival 2021
- Jury Prize in the International Competition at Festival de Cinéma En ville!
- Impact Audience Award at Vancouver International Film Festival 2021
- Honorable Jury Mention at Mostra – São Paulo IFF 2021
- Prix TV 5 Monde at Carthage Film Festival 2021
- Palestinian Sunbird Award for Best Documentary at Palestine Cinema Days 2021
- Bader Best Feature Film Award at Ajyal Film Festival 2021
- Gli Occhiali di Gandhi Award at Torino Film Festival 2021
JURY STATEMENT
“We might even die of hunger but you are dying of indigestion and servility.” This phrase alone is enough to motivate awarding a movie that has the courage to show how history shouldn’t be represented like a farce but like horror, in the face of the western world’s indifference. Its interior and involved gaze composes a mosaic of desperation on which it is impossible to turn our backs.”
- Special Jury Mention in Ópera Prima competition at MiradasDoc 2022
- First ever Arab Film Days Award at Arab Film Days Festival Oslo 2022
JURY STATEMENT
“The director picks up a camera and points the lens as a survival strategy to document everyday life as a proof of existence in a world that has left you behind. His abilities to see others, and to notice the girl standing in the back, tells us something about the director’s values and approach to others. Through his eyes we witness humanity in an inhumane situation.
In the horrible circumstances of a siege, with no access to food and medicine, the film portrays unity, endurance and solidarity. We are introduced to a community that puts aside primal instincts of survival and chooses to be compassionate and loving with each other in a state of emergency. This film is larger than life.
The very first Arab Film Days Award goes to Little Palestine, (Diary of a Siege) directed by Abdallah Al-Khatib.”
- Feature Film Audience Award at International Film Festival Ottawa 2022
- Best Documentary Film at Thin Line Festival 2022
- Students’ Choice Award at Movies that Matter 2022
- Special Mention at Festival cinéma du monde de Sherbrooke 2022
- Best Documentary at Critics Awards For Arab Films organized by the Arab Cinema Center, Cannes 2022
- Coup de Coeur des Jeunes Acid – France Culture Award, Cannes 2022
- Bravery Award Documentary Feature at Mammoth Lake Film Festival 2022
- Audience Award at Filmtage des Mittelmeeres 2022
- Black Iris Award for Best Feature Length Arab Documentary at Amman International Film Festival 2022
- Best Documentary Award at Dingle Distillery International Film Festival 2022
- Best Human Rights Film at Verzió Film Festival 2022
JURY STATEMENT
This year’s films have challenged us, led us to reflections and made us hopeful for a future of less hardship and inequality. On that note, tonight’s winner embodies first-hand representation of a complex, on-going atrocity that deserves urgent attention and political action, that questions indifference and discrimination through a lens that directly tackles the access to basic human rights. War can never be a natural state for anyone.
It has given a political voice to his community, one that is usually lost in the background noise of world affairs, while also providing introspection on the dreams and hopes of everyday people. A collection of home videos under the most tragic circumstances has been transformed into an artistic advocacy project that has presented us with threats, fear and danger. The intentionality of his actions has transcended the screen and geographical distance to take us on a raw exploration of life through the eyes of a refugee. For this and many more reasons, the Best Human Rights Film Award goes to Little Palestine: Diary of a Siege.
- Grand Prix in International Competition at Festival Imagésanté 2023
- Faggio Doc for the Best Film at Faito Doc Festival 2024
- Special Mention by Youth Jury at Faito Doc Festival 2024
- Audience Award at Faito Doc Festival 2024
PRESS
Reviews: The Guardian (EN), The Arts Fuse (EN), Eye for Film (EN), The National (EN), The National News (EN), Debate BFI London (EN), Screendaily (EN), ICA (EN), Rediff (EN), Convenzionali (IT) Little White Lies (EN), news.in-24 (EN), Middle East Eye (EN), Disappointment media (EN), Politis.fr (FR), National Herald (EN), Universal Cinema (EN), Backseat Mafia (EN), Cineuropa – review (EN), Cineuropa – exclusive trailer premiere (EN), Business Doc Europe (EN), Modern Times Review (EN), Duels (IT), Variety (EN)
Interviews: France 24 (EN), The Middle East Monitor (EN), il Manifesto (IT), World Today News (EN), BBC (AR), Business Doc Europe (EN), Filmmaker Magazine (EN), Visions du Réel (EN)
***
Al-Khatib’s brave debut shapes up as a love letter to his fellow citizens and their humanity amidst a profoundly inhuman situation
Emiliano Granada, Variety
***
“powerful, moving and gently poetic film”
Mark Adams, Business Doc Europe
***
“Yarmouk Camp in Damascus, Syria, was once home to the largest concentration of Palestinian refugees. Abdallah Al-Khatib’s record of its brutal siege is vital viewing.”
Institute of Contemporary Arts
***
“An act of witness and solidarity, Al-Khatib’s diary is testament to the dignity of the human spirit.”
Elhum Shakerifar, Debate BFI London
DIRECTOR’S BIOGRAPHY & FILMOGRAPHY
Abdallah Al-Khatib
Abdallah Al-Khatib was born in 1989 in Yarmouk. He studied sociology at the University of Damascus. Before the revolution, he worked for the UN as coordinator of activities and volunteers. He created the humanitarian aid association Wataad, with several friends, which carried out dozens of projects in several regions of Syria, and in particular in Yarmouk. He participated in several documentary films relating the life of the Yarmouk camp, notably being one of the cameramen of 194. Us Children of the Camp which premiered at Visions du Réel in 2017. The German magazine Peace Green identified him as one of the 2014 “peacemakers”. In Sweden, he received the Per Anger Human Rights Award in 2016. Abdallah currently lives in Germany, where he was recently granted refugee status.
CREDITS
Director Abdallah Al-Khatib
Production Mohammad Ali Atassi for Bidayyat for Audiovisual Arts, Jean-Laurent Csinidis for Films de Force Majeure
Screenplay Abdallah Al-Khatib
Editing Qutaiba Barhamji
Artistic advisor Ahmad Amro
Sound design and mix Pierre Armand
Sound editing mix studio Studio Lemon
Color grading Michael Derrosset
Production manager Nora Bertone
PRODUCER’S BIOGRAPHY & FILMOGRAPHY
Mohammad Ali Atassi
Jean-Laurent Csinidis
PRODUCTION COMPANY
Bidayyat for Audiovisual Arts
Beirut, Lebanon
info@bidayyat.org
https://bidayyat.org/
Films de Force Majeure
14 rue Montgrand, 13006 Marseille, France
+33 (0)4 84 18 30 33
contact@films-de-force-majeure.com
http://www.films-de-force-majeure.com
Support
CNC
Institut Français
la Région Sud
Sundance Documentary Grant
Doha FIlm Institute
MEDIA / Creative Europe
AFAC
Al Jazeera
Culture Resource (Al-Mawred Al-Thaqafy)
IMS
Scam (Bourse Brouillon d’un rêve)
Procirep-Angoa
Studio Lemon