Films by Diana El Jeiroudi

Germany, Syria, Netherlands, Norway 2023, 95 min
by Lina

Young independent filmmaker and reporter Lina goes underground to document the Syrian revolution, adopting a series of aliases to avoid detection from the violent state. In Damascus, she is Lina, one of the many of the silent passerbys, but in Homs, she is Maya the war reporter and in Aleppo, she is Lama. In her debut, 5 SEASONS OF REVOLUTION, Lina uses video diaries of smuggled footage and memoir to share this personal story of her close group of friends – Susu, Rima, Malaz, and Bassel – as they are slowly pulled deeper into the struggle for freedom and autonomy against enemies known and unknown. One by one, they are detained and targeted by the regime and Lina ends up alone and isolated amidst the violence and chaos. She continues filming to find clarity. Months transform into years, and Lina – aka Maya aka Layla aka Lama – returns over and over again to the frontlines to witness the regime’s brutal crackdown and see her country morph into a staging ground of global proxy wars. When Lina is detained and held captive in Aleppo, she witnesses unspeakable suffering and torture, and barely escapes. Told over the course of a decade and against the backdrop of shifting historical forces, 5 SEASONS OF REVOLUTION is Lina’s story; the tale of becoming brave. [Deckert Distribution]

2021, 183 min
by Diana El Jeiroudi

They grew up in the lands of dictators and surveillance, where images are censored, photos are burned, thoughts are discreet, and mouths are kept shut. During the years, they made films, documented life, their lives, at least what was possible. They recorded sounds at night and in secret, for the senses to complete the image. From what are seemingly scattered images and narratives, a coherent emotive sensibility emerges unpacking a singular perspective of history and an attempt to speak what has been unspoken and silenced. A first person narrative which pendulates between a perspective that is timelessly personal and intimate, and another which is, on the contrary, very vast, contemporary and political. It traces the journeys of a filmmaker and her partner, friends and their families, once as revolutionaries in their country, once as exiles in Europe nowadays, once as activists, as filmmakers, as lovers, and as listeners. A contemplative journey from silence into words, from blindness into seeing, and of how cinema made it possible and saved their lives. [LA BIENNALE DI VENEZIA]

2017, 50 min
by Usama Ghanoum

The film takes place in the sieged neighborhoods of the Syrian city of Homs, in the period between early 2012 and late 2013. The film focuses specifically on the field hospital. Within the film we see several facets of the day to day life, including, the daily movements and commutes of people amid the on going bombardments, and how the injured are being treated in the field hospital. The film also shows us the other side of the daily life, the smiles and the jokes and how people normalized the everyday bombings. (doxbox).For two years, two hospital workers in Homs documented life during the siege of the Syrian city. As freedom fighters clash with Assad's troops, 7,000 residents are trapped in the middle until they are finally allowed to leave in 2014. Two thousand don't make it out. We see people hiding and running between buildings—walking can be fatal in a city filled with sharpshooters. With the regime's soldiers attacking daily, bullets and bombs continue to flatten the city. But even under these extraordinary circumstances, life goes on between the rubble and dust: there's still joking around, gardening, playing in the snow, watching soccer or just having a laugh. And get ready for some real gallows humor in the Homs promotional video the cameramen decide to shoot, which praises the ruined city as a fine vacation destination. (IDFA)