Whilst all eyes were on the sartorial choicesof the A-list on the red carpet during the first half of the Venice Film Festival, we were also keeping an eye on the films that took place inside the competition’s halls — particularly one that made history for the Middle East and the festival, too.
Overnight, Venice hosted the first-ever screening of a Syrian film that was produced, directed and acted by an entirely Syrian crew.
Directed by Soudade Kaadan, the fictional feature film, titled The Day I Lost My Shadow, took seven years to make and tells a compelling story born from Kaadan’s own experiences during the outbreak of Syria’s civil war in 2012.
Kaadan was unable to shoot the film in Syria however, the film is based close to the Syria-Lebanon border, with post-production taking place in Beirut, France and Greece.
According to The National, Kaadan explained that the film “is set in 2012, right at the start of [the] war. The lead character is a woman who doesn’t care about politics, all she wants is to get some gas because it’s the only way of heating and cooking, so she goes out to find a bottle of gas. That’s when she learns that people lose their shadow during the war.”
The Venice Film Festival is just the beginning of the film’s international journey with plans to go on screen at other A-list festivals that will take place in Toronto, Los Angeles and London.
Now, take a look at another Middle Eastern director who made history during the Cannes Film Festival.
