Those Who Watch Over
Spring Grants 2024 - Post-Production Stage
Karima Saidi / Feature Documentary / Belgium, France, Qatar / 116 min / Original Language: Amharic, Arabic, Azerbaijani, French, Greek, Hindi, Persian, Turkish / Interests: Documentary
Synopsis
In a never-ending ballet of shovels digging new graves every day, four characters are confronted with the question of place: the place we give ourselves, the place we take, the place we are given, and the place we end up taking. We’ll spend a moment with each one, through scenes, rituals, chants, exchanges with the dead, and interactions with the living, creating a community of watchers. As they come into contact with each other in this joyful space, asperities and irritants add another layer to the narrative. The place of the terrorists of Brussels and Paris, the place of refugees and political opponents, between Shiite and Sunni, Congolese and Orthodox, and between the place of women and the place of images, will reveal a latent conflict between social control and freedom of expression, secular norms, and the right to create one’s own links and rituals. Those who watch over are Muslims, Jews, Orthodox believers, and outsiders buried in the land of their birth. Those who watch over are their loved ones, establishing a new relationship with them here in Brussels, in a unique place where care is taken to respect plurality, both for the dead and the living.
Credits
- Director
- Karima Saïdi
- Screenwriter
- Karima Saïdi
- Producer
- Julie Freres, Delphine Tomson, Isabelle Christiaens, Sophie Chouckens, Javier Packer Comyn, Camille Laemlé
- Production Company
- Dérives asbl, Les Films du Fleuve, RTBF, Sophimages, CBA (Centre de l'audiovisuel de Bruxelles), Les Films d'ici
About the Director
Karima Saïdi has a degree in Film Editing and Script Continuity from INSAS and a master's in Film Writing and Analysis from ULB. She is an accomplished documentary film editor, having worked on projects such as 'Femme Taxi à Sidi Bel Abbes' by Hadjaj Belkacem, 'The Dawned of the Sea' by Jawad Rhaleb, 'Red Hair and Black Coffee' by Milena Bochet, and 'Clejani' by Marta Bergman. Additionally, she has developed a career as a scriptwriter for feature films, including 'When Pigs Have Wings' by Sylvain Estibal, 'Our Children' by Joachim Lafosse, and 'Adios Carmen' by Mohamed Amin Benamraoui. In 2013, she created 'Murmurs' and '10 Voices,' a series of sound portraits of Moroccan immigrants in Brussels. In 2016, she paused her activities to care for her mother, who was suffering from Alzheimer's disease. This experience inspired her first feature-length documentary, 'A Way Home,' in 2020. Selected at IDFA for its world premiere, the film won several awards and is considered a turning point in the visibility of first-generation Arab immigrant women. 'Those Who Watch Over' is the second opus in her work on exile and its traces. Karima Saïdi teaches at the INSAS Film School in Brussels, the University of Liège, and the ESAV Film School in Marrakech.