Two Films by Omar Amiralay

Film Essay on the Euphrates Dam
Dir. Omar Amiralay
Syria, 1974, 12′, Documentary
Arabic with French subtitles

A Flood in Baath Country
Dir. Omar Amiralay
Syria, 2003, 46′, Documentary
Arabic with French subtitles

In the 1970s, director Omar Amiralay showed his enthusiasm over President Hafez Al-Assad’s efforts to modernize Syria by dedicating his first documentary, Film Essay on the Euphrates Dam, to the construction of the impressive new Euphrates Dam that was to be the pride of the Baath Party. Thirty years later, the collapse of the Zayzun Dam, which killed dozens of people and ruined thousands of lives, and the revelation of an official report that had predicted the dam’s fate, inspired Amiralay to make A Flood In Baath Country, which examines the flood’s devastating impact on a Syrian village. In interviews with local dignitaries such as a school master and a party official he showed the discrepancies between official rhetoric and reality. A powerful critique of Syria’s political regime and the tribal politics that hold it together.

Born in Damascus in 1944 to the son of a high-ranking officer in the Ottoman military and a Lebanese mother, Omar Amiralay headed to Paris in 1965 to pursue studies in drama and theater at the Théâtre des Nations. Gradually he began to lean towards cinema and enrolled at the Institut des Hautes Etudes Cinematographiques, or IDHEC (now known as FEMIS) in 1967. He was deeply suspicious of fiction cinema, and after a year at the institute began to question whether film was really his vocation. When the 1968 student revolt erupted, Amiralay joined the hordes of protestors, and began to film. His fate was sealed; he never returned to the IDHEC and instead began to make documentary films. From very early on, Amiralay’s films earned a number of awards worldwide, beginning with Leipzig (1971) for Film-Essay on the Euphrates Dam. His cinema has become canon for generations of documentary filmmakers in the Arab world. The most recent edition of the Cinéma du Réel festival at Paris’ Centre Pompidou dedicated an homage to his work in March 2006. Omar Amiralay died suddenly in February last year, at the age of 66.

Special Formula:Language: Arabic and French
Because of limited seating, it is advised to book in advance by calling on 01 397 018.
Reserved seats will be held until 15 minutes before the event begins.

Entrance: 3 000 LL