Yasmin Fedda’s documentary, “Queens of Syria,” could not be playing the festival circuit at a more important moment. Syrian refugees are streaming across borders in Europe while debates both in Europe and the U.S. on the refugee crisis include expressions of fear and concerns over what is the obligation to those who have fled their homes.
Fedda is currently traveling herself, but took a moment to answer questions from Cinema Junkie guest blogger Rebecca Romani via email.
Fedda, who was born in Kuwait and spent time with family in Syria, did a Ph.D in Transdisciplinary Documentary Film at the University of Edinburgh. Her work spans a variety of topics, and she is one of the founders of the Highlight Arts project, which brings together a diverse array of artists, writers, photographers and others to explore the stories of and to give voice to those affected by war, environmental disaster and other forms of conflict.
Fedda seems a little uncomfortable with the idea of being labeled “an Arab Filmmaker” even though her work puts her squarely in the company of the new wave of female filmmakers of Arab descent.
“While I am interested in Arab subjects, this is not the only interest for me. I am generally interested in social and political topics that I can maybe approach in a creative way, to share stories from a human perspective. For me, it is about finding stories that others can relate to, through the way the story is presented and told," Fedda said.
Fedda is currently working on a number of projects, including “some short films made with Iraqi poets," and a new film, "Rebel Geeks: Steal from the Capitalists,” which will be broadcast on Nov. 23 on Al Jazeera English.
Fedda wrapped up “Queens of Syria” sometime in 2014 and has shown it in a number of festivals, including the Abu Dhabi Film Festival where it won the Black Pearl Award for Best Documentary Director from the Arab World. The San Diego screening, scheduled for Saturday, is the film's U.S. premiere.
"Queens of Syria" follows a group of Syrian refugee women as they put on their own version of an ancient Greek play, - "The Trojan Women" by Euripides-about refugees in Amman, Jordan
According to Fedda, “Queens of Syria” sprung out of a project by the UK-based Refuge Drama Productions working with Syrian refugee women in Amman, Jordan.
Writes Fedda, “I was not involved in devising the idea, but was rather interested in the process of bringing it together. I can take credit for the making of the film and stories I decided to focus on, but not on the concept or the making of the play itself, although I did become part of the process by being in the room with them every day.”
The Syrian production team (who can be seen in the film working with the women), chose “The Trojan Women” by Euripides because it “seemed a universal experience, one that talks of the effects of war from the point of view of women, set after the war," Fedda said.
Euripides’ play, written more than 2,000 years ago, seems an eerie echo of today. In "The Trojan Women," the women of Troy watch as their city burns to the ground. In addition to losing their homes, they, too, suffer the loss of family and freedom. Grief stricken, some flee and others are led off into slavery.
Euripedes wrote the tragedy in 415 B.C. as a harsh criticism of the Athenian government's brutal taking of the island of Melos, killing all the men and taking the women and children to be sold in the slave markets.
“Of course, the war in Syria is still ongoing, but the emotions of grief and exile experienced by the women who took part in the project (...) had many parallels with the stories in ancient play," Fedda said.
Syrian producer, Itab Azzam, sought out Syrian refugee women at centers and visited them in their homes, hoping to gather enough women interested in the project.
“It was open to whoever wanted to take part. There was no casting, per se, but was rather developed with those interested in taking part,” Fedda said.
Shot over a six-week rehearsal period, the “Queens” are first 60 women, then 40, then 25.
“The play was introduced to them and they read it. Next, they worked on various exercises that gave an opportunity for the women to share their stories in different ways," Fedda said.
It’s a process you can see them working through in the film in scenes where they practice acting techniques, tell their stories and dream about a better future.
“Through all this, they shared their own stories, and then these were developed by Omar (the director) into the new version of the play,” said Fedda.
For Fedda, one of the most fascinating aspects of the project was how refugee women from different economic backgrounds and cities in Syria could come together to create such a moving piece of work when none of them had ever acted before.
“I was interested in the challenges they had to overcome, and how they together could form a unified play," Fedda said. "I was also struck by the simplicity of the settings but which were full of emotion. For example, just hearing a woman share her experience, just listening to her voice was enough to carry some sections of the film."
Fedda came away with more than 80 hours of footage, including scenes shot in the women’s homes, parts of the performance and shots of Amman.
“Luckily, this had an easy string which was a sort of chronological order, but we played with this a little, we had an end point for the film that we were working towards," Fedda said. "The most challenging part was working out how to weave the play to the daily reality of the women, and making that a theme throughout the film."
Some women eventually left the project, either out of fear for family left in Syria or family pressure to not appear in public. One women initially refused to appear on stage because her 15-year-old son was in jail in Syria. However, once she learned he had been tortured and killed, she, too, wove her story into the play.
In the end, Fedda chose three women to build the documentary around.
“I was attracted to them and they wanted to share their stories, and we got on quite well, and through them I explored how the play had an effect on their daily lives outside the rehearsal space,” said Fedda.
Fedda weaves the stories of many of the other women in the film around its main core, inserting parts of their performances or comments made in rehearsal to bring them in as a second layer of characters.
For many of the women, expressing their stories and presenting them on stage was an emotionally cathartic experience. Rehearsals were a brief respite “for most whose daily experiences are very tough living as refugees in Jordan," according to Fedda .
Shooting the film brought Fedda to a greater understanding of how important it is for refugees to be able to tell their stories and what challenges await the more than 600,000 Syrian refugees who have fled to Jordan so far. More than 2 million refugees are scattered around the Middle East alone.
For Fedda, the takeaway is simple.
"We need to listen to people, such as the women in the film, to try to understand why they have had to leave their country, and that most of the atrocities they experienced were meted out through regime led violence," she said.
"Queens of Syria" plays November 21 at 7 p.m. at the Museum of Photographic Arts.
