From Germany, Khaled Abdulwahed talks on the phone to his father in Syria. Their conversations are anchored in a shared experience, revisiting the period when his father also lived in Germany as a student. Edited to isolate the two voices, the film transforms the exchange into twin monologues that alternate onscreen, emphasizing the distance between them. With no images from this time in his father’s life, the filmmaker traces his footsteps to reimagine it with only two tattered photos to guide him. This playful mission then becomes a way to reduce the insurmountable distance between Leipzig and Aleppo. In between long silences, a voice that betrays fragile health or the sounds of bombs in the background evoke the feeling of powerlessness brought on by exile. (AAM)

In collaboration with Ciel variable and Regards syriens

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