Neil BakerNezouh arrives in cinemas across the UK and Ireland on May 3. Book Now.
Written and directed by Soudade Kaadan, Nezouh tells the story of a family wanting to stay put in their house in war-torn Damascus rather than flee as refugees. While devastation and danger surround them, love and idealism keep them grounded and safe, even as a bomb hits them directly and their roof comes crumbling down. As they are held captive by their situation, they somehow find personal freedom.
Shot by celebrated cinematographer Hélène Louvart (La Chimera, Happy as Lazzaro, The Lost Daughter), the film has a magical realism in its look and feel that suspends reality while never shying away from the atrocities that surround it. Co-cinematographer Burak Kanbir contributes to the authentic sense of time, place, and space.
The film stars Syrian actors Samer Al Masri and Kinda Alloush, alongside newcomers Hala Zein and Nizar Alani. Kaadan says of the film and of her own experience: “It is only after the bombing started in our neighbourhood in Damascus that I left the house with my sister. Damascene society was conservative, even in liberal families. With the new wave of displacement, it became normal (for the first time) to see young Damascene women living alone and separating from their families. Myself, and many of my friends, started to make decisions we would never make before. Now, sadly, there is no more society, something new has occurred.” She adds: “The word ‘nezouh’ means in Arabic the displacement of souls, water and people; it is the displacement of light and darkness. Nezouh tries to talk about this inevitable invasion of light and hope in the midst of this chaos.”
Billed as a “new, beautiful and enchanting feminist coming-of-age drama from an award-winning Syrian filmmaker … that offers a powerful and moving perspective on the Syrian conflict,” it will screen as part of the upcoming Woman with a Movie Camera film series at the BFI Southbank, before further previews and its theatrical release in early May.
