3350 KM
٣٣٥٠ كم- SYRIA, FRANCE / 2023 / Arabic / Color / DCP / 13 min
Director, Photography: Sara Kontar
Editing: Laure Despres-Khatib
Sound: Rita Mahmoud
Graphics: Ameen Abo Kaseem
Color Grading: Mahmoud Hamoud
Source: Sara Kontar
“What were the lyrics to that song?” asks a daughter, the director, while her father lays bare his grief over their separation. Video calls do not go well over an unstable connection, and all that links these two separated by 3,350 km, between France and Syria, is Google Maps. Attempts to shrink this unbridgeable distance even just a little through the internet make its vastness stand out all the more. The daughter stares intently at her screen through their awkward conversations, almost as if the distance has frozen her. Perhaps she is trying to summon there before her eyes the image of her father singing that song to her as a child. (HN)
[Director’s Statement] From my room in Paris, in exile, after spending seven years away from my home in Syria, far from my father who remains alone with the ghosts of the past and the lost future—as he always tells me—I began recording our phone conversations over the internet.
Through these often-interrupted exchanges, he tells me about the situation in the country, his daily life from which I am distant, his solitude, his pain, and his feelings. I film this screen that both brings us closer and separates us, this pixelated frame that represents my only window of communication. Among the specks of dust, I discern my erased memories that fade a little more each day, my life from which I have been cut off, and my country, to which I cannot return.
This film is a short documentary, but also a brief and personal investigation into the Syrian experience and the relationship between exile and homeland, between my father and me, the stranger abroad and the stranger within. All that connects us is a choppy sound through which we try to be together.
Sara KontarSyrian artist, photographer, and filmmaker based in France since 2016. She holds a Master’s degree in animation cinema from L’École Nationale Supérieure des Arts Décoratifs de Paris (ENSAD). Her experimental video works A Wave (2020) and Back-And-Forth (2022) were showcased at Centre Pompidou in 2022, followed by an exhibition at Palais de Tokyo in 2023. Her work focuses on her Syrian roots and the experience of exile. Sara is the founder of “Al-Ayoun,” a space for visual storytellers in Syria and the diaspora.