DARAYA – A LIBRARY UNDER BOMBS
Delphine Minoui, Bruno Joucla | Syrien, Türkei, Frankreich 2018 | 64 Min. | OmeU
Mitten im syrischen Bürgerkrieg wagen einige Freunde ein einzigartiges Experiment des kulturellen Widerstands: trotz ständiger Bombenangriffe retten sie Bücher aus den Trümmern der belagerten Außenbezirke von Damaskus und errichten im Geheimen eine Bibliothek, die zu einem Zufluchtsort für den Glauben an Friede, Freiheit und Demokratie wird. Eine besondere Erfahrung, die sie akribisch filmen und dokumentieren. Seit die Stadt geräumt wurde, sehnen sich die durch die Wirren des Kriegs und des Zwangsexils getrennten Freunde nun nach einem Wiedersehen. Daraya – A Library Under Bombs ist eine inspirierende Geschichte, die eindrucksvoll zeigt, wie Hoffnung und Freundschaft die Schrecken des Krieges überwinden können.
Regie: Delphine Minoui, Bruno Joucla
Kamera und Ton: Delphine Minoui
Schnitt: Bruno Joucla
Produktion: BROTHER FILMS
Biographies
Albert London prize-winning Delphine Minoui is a permanent Figaro foreign correspondant in Istanbul, and a Middle East specialist. She has been a foreign correspondant there for many years (in Teheran, Cairo, Beirut). In Les passeurs de livres de Daraya (Seuil, 2017) she tells the story of a clandestine library in Syria. Fighting with books. This is the story of an incredible community of rebels who relentlessly opposed the beauty of words to the violence of bombs. This famous „third voice“ between Damas and Daech was born out of the pacifist demonstrations of the 2011 uprising that was silenced by the war. The book, which is already being translated into dozens of languages and is up amongst the best-selling French language books, quite obviously lends itself to a documentary film. In 2017, convinced by this prospect, we started to communicate with Delphine and Bruno Joucla, the director that Delphine had approached with her project.
Bruno Joucla is a film director. Recently, he directed „Au nom de l’ordre et de la Morale,“ produced by What’s Up films, a multi-award winning documentary film. He started his career in 1998 as an editor at the CAPA agency, and his work was noticed very early on. Amongst others, he has worked with Richard Puech („Une journée dans la vie d’un pneu“ – FIGRA Investigation prize ), Alexis Marant („Planet for sale“ – FIGRA Jury’s prize), and Manon Loizeau („Iran, after the protest“ – FIGRA Grand prize). Over the past ten years, he has collaborated with David André, „We did it on songg“ (Golden FIPA) and „Everlasting sorrows“ (Albert London Prize), amongst others. Through these diverse films, each one very different from the next, Bruno Joucla refined his visual and narrative writing, his personal touch. He created his identity. He later naturally turned towards directing („Looking for Charlie,“ – „To become doctor“ – „Primary Instincts“), inspired by the world around him and the stories that flow from it.
