Days of Tyranny
Spring Grant 2014 - Production Stage
Katia Jarjoura / Feature Narrative / Lebanon, France, Canada, Qatar / 2016 / 90 min / Colour / Original Language: Arabic / Interests: Drama, Thriller, War, Psychological
Synopsis
In a border town set in an unnamed Arab country ruled by a ruthless dictatorship, Hana, a mother and primary school teacher, is hiding her younger brother Ismail behind the walls of her house. As a journalist and opponent of the regime, he has committed an irrevocable crime: he published an article denouncing the state’s repressive measures and the security forces crackdown on a popular uprising in the South. Henceforth, hunted down by security agents and threatened with death, Hana must help him out to escape the country. But in this country where everyone spies on each other and where suspicion and fear reign supreme, at school, as well as inside the household, Hana can only count on herself to face the risks of such an operation. While the attempts to get her brother out are failing, and the perspectives are shrinking, the trap is closing on Ismail and the family is breaking apart.
Credits
- Director
- Katia Jarjoura, Jamal Belmahi
- Screenwriter
- Katia Jarjoura
- Producer
- Nadim Cheikhrouha, Habib Attia
- Production Company
- TANIT FILMS, CINETELEFILMS
- Production Company
- Tanit Films
About the Director
Katia Jarjoura is a Lebanese-Canadian filmmaker who has directed several documentaries in the Middle East ('The Road to Kerbala', 'Goodbye Mubarak', 'Lebanon Sitting on a Volcano') for the French-German channel ARTE. She also wrote several screenplays and made two short fiction films: 'In their Blood' (France 2 award at the Brest Film Festival, 2009) and 'Only Silence' (2017), which was broadcast on France 3. Katia also worked as a consultant and script doctor on various film projects. She was a member of the CNC (National Center of Cinematography) commission for short films in Paris. She also conducted several short film workshops in the Middle East for emerging filmmakers, among which in Iraq (2015), in Libya and in Algeria (2017). Katia is now based in Paris, where she teaches cinema at the French Cinémathèque. She has just finished shooting Escape, a feature-length documentary about exile, and is developing other personal documentary and film projects.