A SONG FOR SUMMER AND WINTER(2021)

Syria, Denmark, Germany, United States, Arabic - 120 min

Director

Talal Derki and Ali Wajeeh

Color

Length

120 min

Language

Arabic

Producer

Sigrid Dyekjær, Heba Khaled, Beth Earl

INFORMATION

Feature Documentary

TOTAL BUDGET

US $777,469

CONFIRMED FINANCING

US $349,000

CONFIRMED FINANCIAL PARTNERS

-Impact Partners

-Catapult

-International Media Support

-Impact Partners Investor

-Rustic Canyon Pictures

-Siggi Productions

CONTACT

sigriddyekjaer@gmail.com

+4526162535

 

 

A SONG FOR SUMMER AND WINTER

Syria, Denmark, Germany, United States

LogLine

After 10 years of war, a group of women gather to write a play about being a woman in Syria today. Breaking taboos in the Arab world, they attempt to present how powerless they are over their own lives.

Synopsis

Eliana, Enana, Farah, Grace, and Suhair are in their late twenties and have been living in Damascus since the beginning of the civil war. They belong to the religious minorities who have managed to preserve their identities and cultures despite the religious intolerance in the region.

They are bound together by an old friendship, in addition to a fellowship of study as they are graduates of the Higher Institute of Theater in Damascus. The young and passionate girls find it almost impossible to get an opportunity to work in acting without having to compromise their integrity in some way. They decide to produce a play that conveys their personal experiences, at a time where it is impossible to work and secure a living in Syria.  With the massive collapse of the economy, they must write and execute the play with an exceptionally low budget and scarce funding. The play will be based on their own lives, and will tackle nepotism, corruption, harassment, and sexual exploitation in the show business industry. They find an old abandoned house in the old city that needs repairing and some restoration to make it habitable. With their own bare hands, they renovate the house and begin to use it as a workshop space for their play. Farah presents the general idea of the project as she has been chosen by the group to be the director.

Talal Derki and Ali Wajeeh

Director

Director’s Statement

After making two films about the Syrian war and experiencing its harsh reality first hand, I wanted to shy away from filming the country for a while as I needed to heal myself psychologically from the painful trauma of war. For two consecutive years, I was looking for topics that are not related to Syria or its war, but unfortunately I could not find myself in any of them. Rather, I kept finding myself going back to my home country despite being in exile from my hometown since 2012. Exile means to be banned from ever returning to your own home. But to me, it also means that the ghosts of that place are still living within you, as if you were dead and your soul is still following the news of your loved ones who are still alive. I was strongly affected by the UN statistic stating that the economic crisis has plunged 90% of the population into poverty in Damascus. I could not ignore that fact about my hometown, neither as a filmmaker nor a human being. I began preparing for a film where the past and the present meet through Syrian women’s struggles and contradictions, a perspective that was absent from my last two films. This film completes my trilogy about Syria and the war. A film showcasing the cruelty of the war, and the softness of a song with a female perspective. A film that flips all what happened and what is happening, knowing that if women in Syria were given power and independence, we could have avoided reaching this destruction.

Sigrid Dyekjær, Heba Khaled, Beth Earl

Producer

Producer’s Note

The film follows five emerging actresses who come from Syrian religious minority groups. Their friendship began during their studies at the Damascus Higher Institute of Dramatic Arts, before they all graduated from school. As their friendship blossomed, they decided to create a play together about women’s exploitation in Syria with a focus on what happens within the entertainment industry. Though the girls are doing their best to begin a career as actresses in Syria, the idea of leaving the country in search of a better life never leaves their minds. Eliana, Enana, Farah, Grace and Suhair are their names.

Producer’s Filmography

Sigrid Dyekjær-Siggi Productions:

2020: Scandinavian Star

2019-2020: The Cave

2019: Love Child

2019: I Walk

2019: School of Seduction

2019: Hunting for Hedonia

2019: The Kingmaker

2018: Aquarela

2017: A Year of Hope

2017: A Modern Man

2016: Bugs

2016: Amateurs in Space

2016: Safari

2014: Something Better to Come

2013: Ai Weiwei – The Fake Case

2012: Free the Mind

Heba Khaled-Jouzour Film Production:

2017: People of the Wasteland

2017: Of Fathers and Sons

Beth Earl-Rustic Canyon Productions:

TBD: How to Rob Banks for Dummies

2021: Faya Dayi

2020: Blue Code of Silence

2020: Kings of Capitol Hill

2018: Skip Day

2017: The Rabbit Hunt

2015: Red Nose Day

2012: The Secret Policeman's Ball