The Return
Fall Grant 2015 - Production Stage
Meyar Al-Roumi / Feature Narrative / France, Germany, Qatar / 2022 / Original Language: Arabic / Interests: Drama
Synopsis
Taysir, a historian in his fifties, has settled in the French city of Marseille with his wife Maryam and their two daughters Judy and Ward. Driven by the desire to build a better future for his country, he returns to Syria in order to move the remains of his younger brother Kamal from the suburbs of Damascus where he was shot as a freedom fighter during the revolution to the north of the country, in ancient Mesopotamia, in accordance with ancestral traditions and customs. In Taysir’s mind, such a symbolic act would represent the foundational stone upon which a future for Syria can be deemed possible.
Halfway through his journey, Taysir meets his closest friend Hassan who reminds him of an aspect of the story he had informed him years ago, namely that his brother had joined an armed jihadist group in the last three months of his life. This “reminder” disrupts Taysir’s journey and turns it into a dialogue between two brothers, the dead one now a burden for the one still living. Not only Kamal’s change of position defeats Taysir’s original project, it also awakens his own guilt of not having returned to Syria when the revolution was still a reality and not yet a failed dream.
Credits
- Director
- Meyar Al-Roumi
- Screenwriter
- Meyar Al-Roumi
- Producer
- Xavier Rocher
- Production Company
- La Fabrica Nocturna Productions
- Production Company
- La Fabrica Nocturna Cinéma
About the Director
Born in Damascus in 1973, Meyar Al-Roumi worked as a photographer before studying cinema in Paris at the Université Paris VIII and La Fémis, from which he graduated in 2001. He worked as a director of photography on several documentary and fiction films in France and in Syria including Omar Amiralay’s ‘Flood in Baath Country’ (2003) and Mohammad Al-Roumi’s ‘Blue-Grey’ (2004), and directed several documentaries, including ‘A Silent Cinema’ (2001) and ‘Waiting for the Day’ (2003). Al-Roumi has also directed short fiction films, including ‘The Voyage of Rabeya’ (2005) and ‘Journey’ (2011). He completed his first feature-length fiction film, ‘Round Trip’, in 2012.
Contacts
-
Main Contact
Xavier Rocher
- Company:
- La Fabrica Nocturna Cinéma
- Phone:
- +33175516231
- Email:
- vivekcaravan90@gmail.com