Interviews with the film-maker

Meet Liwaa Yazji  -
(excerpt)

The film represents a very intimate topic of exile, specifically the moment of making the decision to leave home. It follows nine stories of this inner difficult struggle in the context of the Syrian war. What was the first impulse to start to speak about this topic? Based on what criteria did you choose the main characters?


The choice of stories was made to cover different approaches to the idea of home and its meaning in the Syrian context now. It also covered the variations of Syrians, Palestinian Syrians (with their history of moving from one country to another) and Syrians who also belong to the occupied territories since they have a very complex and deep meaning of home.

I tried as well to range between situations trying to reflect contradictions, variety leading to integration.

Your previous professional experience has been linked with the film industry as well. You know the role of actress, assistant director and now you tried the role of director. HAUNTED represents your first work with the medium of documentary film. Why did you decide to use this particular film form?
full interview

ICFLIX in conversation with Syrian film-maker Liwaa Yazji
Syrian film-maker, Liwaa Yazji speaks to ICFLIX at the Dubai International Film Festival 2014 about her new feature movie, Haunted and talks about life in Syria and the difficulties faced as a film-maker. youtube

Syrian filmmaker Liwaa Yazji discusses the dangers and inspirations she encountered whilst shooting her first documentary

Q1/ Can you briefly introduce yourself and tell us why you became interested in working in film?

I am also a board member of Ettijahat-Independent Culture.

Q3/ For your documentary you conducted a series of interviews with people who had fled Syria, can you tell us about the process you went through to find interviewees and about any unexpected stories you uncovered in the process?
I spent a long period scouting before shooting, during this time I tried to archive and collect as many stories as I could, whether told orally or to the camera. That scouting period took place in Syria at first, later I realized that I needed to follow the journey of those stories to one of the refugees hosting countries: I chose Lebanon. There I scouted in various areas hosting Syrian refugee communities.


source: The Mosaic Rooms, London