Republic of Silence

They grew up in the lands of dictators and surveillance, where images are censored, photos are burned, thoughts are discreet, and mouths are kept shut. During the years, they made films, documented life, their lives, at least what was possible. They recorded sounds at night and in secret, for the senses to complete the image. From what are seemingly scattered images and narratives, a coherent emotive sensibility emerges unpacking a singular perspective of history and an attempt to speak what has been unspoken and silenced. A first person narrative which pendulates between a perspective that is timelessly personal and intimate, and another which is, on the contrary, very vast, contemporary and political. It traces the journeys of a filmmaker and her partner, friends and their families, once as revolutionaries in their country, once as exiles in Europe nowadays, once as activists, as filmmakers, as lovers, and as listeners. A contemplative journey from silence into words, from blindness into seeing, and of how cinema made it possible and saved their lives.

I am not mute, but silent. I cannot see but I am not blind. What do you do as a survivor? You either shut up or tell the whole story. How to tell a whole story with a fragmented, and sometimes an unregistered memory? How does my silent inner world reflect that unspoken world, or echo an era of revolution, war, immigration, and world politics? How to negotiate in a world uninterested in negotiation? As a filmmaker, words, sounds and images are delicate elements I deal with, I craft and I order. But how can I create a simple linear story, when I don’t have the luxury of simplicity. So, here I am. I am the story, yet the teller. This is what is left of me and of the story, of how I bore witness and became involved, of how cinema has saved our sanity and probably our lives.

PRODUCTION 1: Orwa Nyrabia, Diana El Jeiroudi – No Nation Films GmbH
Friesickestr. 17
13086 – Berlin, Germany
Mob. +49 15901050030
info@no-nation.de
http://www.no-nation.de

PRODUCTION 2: Camille Laemlé – Les Films d’Ici
62, boulevard Davot
75020 – Paris, France
Tel. +33 1 44 52 23 23
Mob. +33 603708169
camille.laemle@lesfilmsdici.fr
http://www.lesfilmsdici.fr/

PRESS OFFICE: Claudia Tomassini, Pierpaolo Festa - Claudia Tomassini & Associates
Tel. +491732055794
claudia@claudiatomassini.com
pierpaolo@claudiatomassini.com

US PRESS OFFICE: Will Frank – Cinetic Media
will@cineticmedia.com