
The War Show
SECTION: International Forum 2017
SCREENINGS
Friday, 29.09., 5.00 p.m., Festsaal
Wednesday, 04.10., 8.45 p.m., kinoeins
SYNOPSIS
In the beginning the goal was clear. Get rid of Assad’s regime and all of its ugliness, to achieve freedom to be whoever you want to be.
In March 2011, Syrian radio host Obaidah Zytoon (Oby) and friends join the street protests against Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. Knowing the Arab Spring will forever change their country, the group of artists and activists begin filming their lives and the events around them. But as the regime’s violent response spirals the country into a bloody civil war, their hopes for a better future are tested by violence, imprisonment and death. Oby leaves Damascus and journeys around the country, from her hometown of Zabadani, to the center of the rebellion in Homs, to northern Syria where she witnesses the rise of extremism. A deeply personal road movie, The War Show captures the fate of Syria through the intimate lens of a small circle of friends.
As the story unfolds, we follow in the footsteps of the Syrian revolution. Oby is fighting for honesty and justice, but in the face of war everything gets corrupted. Close friends of Oby disappear and are found tortured to death. Others just vanish. Slowly her memories are disconnected. She seeks to reassemble the pieces between ugliness and beauty.
OBAIDAH ZYTOON
Obaidah Zytoon was born in 1976 in Syria. She studied English Literature at the University of Damascus before becoming a radio host and producer, working both in Syria and internationally. In 2008, Zytoon produced her first documentary film, Through Women’s Eyes.
FILMOGRAPHY
Through Women’s Eyes (2008), The War Show (2016)
ANDREAS DALSGAARD
Andreas Dalsgaard is a director born in 1980 in Denmark. He graduated from the National Film School of Denmark as a fiction film director in 2009. He made his directorial debut with the documentary Afghan Muscles. With this film he won the prize of the Best Director at the AFI Fest in Los Angeles. Since then he has been working as a documentary filmmaker.
FILMOGRAPHY
Bogota Change (2009), The Human Scale (2012), Travelling with Mr. T (2012), Life is Sacred (2015), The War Show (2016).
WEBSITE
http://thewarshow.com/