Nouss Nouss
Fall Grants 2016 - Production Stage
Leila Albayaty / Feature Experimental or Essay / Iraq, France, Germany, Qatar / 2017 / 80 min / Original Language: Arabic, French / Interests: Creative Documentary
Synopsis
‘Nouss Nouss’ portrays an encounter between Western and Arab cultures via the story of a French-Iraqi family. Abdul was a co-founder of the Ba’ath party in Iraq. Threatened by the Iraqi authorities, he had to flee the country. In 1970, he met Simone in Paris, where they fell in love and started a family. Now they spend half their time in Egypt and the other half in France. A musician and filmmaker, their eldest daughter Leila began filming her family in 2001. Recently, she felt the need to return to her Arabic heritage after rejecting it for most of her life, and she tries to learn the language and culture through songs written by her father. This in turn gives him the opportunity to speak about the tragedies taking place in Iraq, and to witness the fractures of an exiled family who, in spite of everything, still believe in hope and freedom.
Credits
- Director
- Leila Albayaty
- Screenwriter
- Leila Albayaty
- Producer
- François-Pierre Clavel
- Production Company
- KIDAM
About the Director
Based in Berlin, Leila Albayaty is a French-Iraqi singer-songwriter, film director, writer and actor. Her award-winning films have premiered at the Berlin International Film Festival, the Dubai International Film Festival, Indie Lisboa and numerous other international festivals. Albayaty combines music, cinema and autobiographical inspirations in her artistic works to reveal her profund unease of being cut away from her Arab roots and culture even as she witnesses the terrorism that strikes as a consequence of international interventionist politics.