Documentary: Black Stone, with an introduction by the author Khaled Khalifa

Syrian documentary by Nidal Al-Dabas on the hard life of children in a poor part of the city of Damascus. With an introduction by the writer Khaled Khalifa, who wrote the scenario. In English.

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Date and time Friday 18 January 2008 20:00 tot 21:20 uur
Location Filmhuis - zaal 6

Black Stone (2006) is the first long documentary by the Syrian filmmaker Nidal Al-Dabas, who earlier made the long fiction-movie 'Under Ceiling'. Al Dabas closely co-operated with the writer Khaled Khalifa, who was co-producer and writer of the scenario. Black Stone is the name of a poor area in South-Damascus. The film follows four children who collect scrap to sell it, and help their poor families with the money. The film depicts the hard life of the children, and at the same time shows how they enjoy their lives and find space to dream. Khaled Khalifa, writer of In praise of hatred (a novel banned in Syria, set in 1982 during the clashes between islamists and the government) will introduce the documentary. In English.
This documentary replaces the earlier announced Arabic animated films by Afkar Media.

Khaled Khalifa

(1966, Syria) is a script writer and a novelist. His latest novel, In Praise of Hatred (2006), which appeared in Lebanon, is banned in Syria. It is about a black page in Syrian history: the unprecedented aggresssive retaliation by the Syrian government against islamists in Homs and Hama, in the 1980s. Reuters and Human Right Watch have taken action in the meantime. Khalifa is working on his fourth novel, A Parallel Life. His first, The Guard of Deception (1993) appeared in 2000 as the The Gypsy Notebooks, banned in Syria for four years. Khalifa works with the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs of the US Department of State. In 2007 he received a medal from the Ismaiiliyah International Festival for Documentaries and in 2005 a prize for the best script at het Valencia Film Festival.
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