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Yazan Rabee

A chase, footsteps closing in; as you approach your house, it moves further away. This is a recurring nightmare, shared by many Syrians who have fled their homeland. At night they find themselves back in their hometowns, running, chased by invisible men. They’re looking for a safe place that they can never reach. BACK dives into this nightmare to examine where it stems from. Did the trauma start at the protests against Bashar al-Assad, like it did for director Yazan Rabee? Or do we have to go back further, to the terror during the reign of Bashar’s father, Hafez al-Assad? The result is an opressive visual essay about mortal agony and trauma. 

This short film is part of the programme Shorts: Facing the Past

Credits

Director
Yazan Rabee
Producer
Laura Verduijn, Philippe Avendaño Vera
Year
2022
Country of production
Netherlands, The
Type
Documentary, Short
Duration
7 minutes
Spoken language
Arabic
Subtitles
EN
Dutch distributor
Stichting Prospektor