In Damascus—في دمشق
An Interview with Waref Abu-Quba
On November 1st Waref Abu-Quba launched his short film “In Damascus” on Vimeo. Since then it has been viewed over 40,000 times and was labeled as a “Vimeo Staff Pick.” The film beautifully transports us to Damascus as it was in 2011 when Abu-Quba shot this footage. What follows is a short interview between Waref Abu-Quba and Ummah Wide’s Executive Editor, Dustin Craun.
Can you talk a bit about yourself, who are you and how you started to this project?
First thank you for having me, I am a Syrian filmmaker and motion graphic designer, I have a bachelors degree in graphic art from the University of Damascus. I’ve worked as a freelancer filmmaker and motion graphic designer since then and I’ve made a number of projects with major companies nationally and internationally.
I’ve always wanted to make a film about Damascus but I didn’t have the experience nor the tools at the time. I wanted to make a film that shows the world an absent side of Damascus, maybe absent from some Syrians also. As the saying goes “Sometimes you need to distance yourself to see things clearly” maybe my time staying aboard was a good help for me to finish this film. I have never seen any well made films about Damascus like what you can find about other cities, so I said to myself maybe it’s my responsibility to make one.
Can you talk about your inspirations for the film, and talk about when you shot it. Almost everything we hear about Syria today is about the continuing civil war, can you talk about your films representation of life on the ground in Syria?
The life of this project was more than 3 years, it was my companion during staying aboard. I went out of Syria in September 2011, having with me the footage waiting for things to settle down for me and start working on it, but every time I try to work on it, I had that feeling of fear, fear of nostalgia mostly, and also a fear of me doing mediocre work. Every time I felt myself going in the direction of mediocrity I stopped working immediately, and leave it maybe for months until I feel eager towards it again, that and also working as a freelancer all those years killed my time at a point.
I was inspired during those years from so many bits and pieces I’ve seen over the web. One stuck deeply in my mind though is Fragments of Time by Daniele Manoli. The film was shot in 2011 during March and April, the same months the current events started in, so I can’t say it’s a representation of the life on the ground today, it’s a representation of life then.
Your film has a sense of timelessness throughout it, as an ode to a city that is 11,000 years can you talk about the feelings that you are trying to move in the people who view the film?
I didn’t want to make a crystal clear image for two reasons, first I didn’t have the tools for that, secondly I wanted to make something like a dream sequence not like a documentary. I wanted to give that fantasy feeling you get while walking the streets of Damascus, I wanted to make it look like as if we are looking through a witch ball, or through stained glass which Damascus is famous for.
The closing lines of the Mahmoud Darwish poem in the film really stuck out for me, “In Damascus continues the present tense, its Ummayad works. We walk towards our tomorrow confident of the sun in our past. We and the eternity are the residents of this land.” Why did you choose this poem for the film and what do these words mean for you?
Mahmoud Darwish is a world famous Palestinian author and poet, he has been described as incarnating and reflecting “the tradition of the political poet in Islam, the man of action whose action is poetry.” He wrote a poem about Damascus called “In Damascus” and it’s recited by his voice, so what’s more can I ask for? When I heard it, immediately, it was my first choice.
His words are poetry but they also reflect the truth, In Damascus you see the old buildings, houses, mosques, baths, schools, the hospitals, ruins, souqs (markets)…etc everywhere, they are still standing up to this day. So that’s what, I reckon, he meant in his line “We and the eternity are the residents of this land.”
While the war in Syria seems to be totally absent from the film, it seems like you can hear gunfire at different points. As planes fly over in the final frames what does your film say about hope and beauty in a time of what must seem like endless war for Syrians?
There is no gunfire at any point, the only thing you can here is the jets sound in the final scene and this is the only reference for the war. It wasn’t my intention to put so many references because there are plenty of real videos over the news and the internet.
I wanted to give the impression that this city (this beauty) could be bombed as the many other places that have been bombed in Syria.
You are both a graphic designer and a film maker, these two art forms overlap beautifully in the film, can you talk a bit about how you designed and made the film?
I try to reflect my background as a graphic artist into my film work because that’s what I’ve studied at the university before going into filmmaking, you know things like calligraphy, drawing, painting, printmaking, lithography, typography, serigraphy and woodcut.
I try to work on every scene as a paining from all aspects, composition, color, layers, balance …etc. The style was a result of more than 8 years of influences and experience in the industry.
“In Damascus, continues the present tense its Ummayad works. We walk towards our tomorrow confident of the sun in our past. We and the eternity are the residents of this land.” — Mahmoud Darwish
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