BACKGROUND

by Khaled Abdulwahed

    Synopsis

    A photo camera is cleaned. Click. The shutter works. Bright light. A crackle and hiss in the sound. A broken "Hello?" opens a conversation between Khaled Abdulwahed, a Syrian filmmaker living in Leipzig, and his father in Aleppo. The son reconstructs his father's journey, arriving in the GDR as an exchange student in 1956. His son applies for asylum more than 60 years later as a refugee. The civil war in Syria separates their stories, the film BACKGROUND brings them back together and continues them.

    Festivals

    2023
    Grand Prix – FID Marseille
    IDFA – Signed
    47 Duisburger Filmwoche
    40 Kassel Dokfest
    26 RIDM, Montreal
    Concorso Internazionale - Filmmaker Festival Milano
    2024
    20 Achtung Berlin FF