Heim
Spring Grants 2019 - Development Stage
Liwaa Yazaji, Mohammad Abou Laban / TV Series / Lebanon, Qatar / 60 min / Original Language: Arabic, English, German / Interests: Drama
Synopsis
If we can’t live together here, we can’t live together anywhere. This drama takes place in a refugee centre in Berlin-Tempelhof airport, which though technically out of service is still “welcoming” different departing and arriving sort of people. They’re not the fancy passersby travelling to their own ends—they’re now deemed refugees whose life practically stopped here paused on standby mode. The airport is thus a limbo they are stuck in. Not only their destiny is what we see here, but also that of the German characters accompanying them. As the German employees living through this experience are not better off; they are no longer the smartly dressed captains and crews, nothing more than exhausted over worn employees, obsessed with the duty of “protecting” a-la carte this modern Tower of Babel they found themselves part of. It’s a testing ground for different identities and clashing worlds, where people come to the realisation that however much we understand about each other, it’ll never outweigh how much we don’t understand. No one can witness nor come close this absurdity hoping to stay the same. No one enters this limbo and leaves the same; lives here change completely, once and for all.
Credits
- Director
- Liwaa Yazaji
- Screenwriter
- Liwaa Yazaji, Mohammad Abou Laban
- Producer
- Tania Khoury
About the Director
Liwaa Yazji is a filmmaker, poet, playwright, scenarist and translator. She was educated in both English Literature and Theater Studies. Her first documentary ‘Haunted’ (2014) premiered at FID Marseilles. She published her first play ‘Here in the Park’ in 2012, her poetry book ‘In Peace, we leave Home’ 2014, and a translation of Edward Bond’s ‘Saved’ into Arabic in 2014. She has worked as a script doctor at several pan-Arab companies and wrote the script of the pan-Arab series ‘The Brothers’ (2014). Her play ‘Goats’ premiered in The Royal Court in November 2017, and her play ‘Q&Q’ premiered at the Birth Festival at The Royal Exchange Theatre October 2016.
Contacts
-
Main Contact
Liwaa Yazaji
- Email:
- liwaa.yazji@gmail.com
-
Main Contact
Mohammad Abou Laban
- Email:
- moaboulaban@gmail.com