Heights
Spring Grants 2018 - Development Stage
Faïza Yakoubi / Feature Documentary / Algeria, Romania, France, Qatar / 70 min / Original Language: Bengali / Interests: Documentary, Social Issues, Immigration, Identity, Exile
Synopsis
Abdul’Rohim and his friends are young Rohingyas fleeing persecution in Myanmar to find refuge in Malaysia. They all live in the same village on the outskirts of Kuala Lumpur. At nightfall, they leave to make money installing signboards across the city. Working conditions are dangerous as they climb without a harness, putting their lives at risk each second. Cut off from their home country; they meet after work in the village, where solidarity and secrecy are universal rules. Stateless and deprived of basic human and labour rights, at an age when everything is still possible, they carry on believing in a better future.
Credits
- Director
- Faïza Yakoubi
- Screenwriter
- Faïza Yakoubi
- Producer
- Paula Tudor Cămîrzan
About the Director
Faïza Yakoubi is a Franco-Algerian filmmaker. After working for several years in the field of communications, she undertook an MA in sociological film-making. There, she directed a short film on gender equality. In 2017 she directed, shot and edited a short documentary film, 'Mohamed and Mokhtar', about two old Maghrebian immigrants living in a shared apartment in Paris. Her single-shot film, ‘In Rush to Take Time', was selected and projected at the “Les Rencontres du cinéma documentaire” festival in Paris.