“Whenever you throw stones into the sea, it sends ripples through me.” — Dunya Mikhail
Bookended at its beginning and end by the stunning stanza from the esteemed Iraqi-American poet quoted above, the documentary ‘Ayouni’ proves both a heartbreaker and a dream maker of a film. Now let me explain.
Please bear with me while I uncover it for you, layer by layer. It’s seldom that a documentary about Syria has been made with such honesty, devoid of manipulating the audience and chuck full of earnestness. Starting July 1st, you’ll be able to stream the film here, in seven languages — and the film’s release is supported by The Syria Campaign, Amnesty International UK and Nophotozone.
I’ll admit that my own interest in this documentary of disappearance and love found started from the story of a compatriot, Father Paolo Dall’Oglio — a Jesuit priest kidnapped in 2013, presumably by ISIS in Raqqa, Syria. He spoke fluent Arabic, promoted peace and encouraged interfaith meetings in a country that had once been fertile grounds for several differing world religions. But the Arab Spring and the advent of ISIS changed all that. Christians began to be persecuted and peacemakers became the enemy.
Bassel Safadi and Noura Ghazi in ‘Ayouni’
Once this spark of interest was created within me — I knew little about Father Paolo and less still about his kidnapping — I discovered in Yasmin Fedda’s film some unfamiliar themes, a different dialogue from the typical violence-driven conversation about Syria post-Revolution, but also found before me a wonderful new set of “friends”. Characters like Noura and her love Bassel Safadi — a computer programmer who forcibly disappeared in Syria. Unlike Father Paolo, Safadi disappeared in 2015, after a long incarceration and probably at the hands of the Syrian regime.
‘Ayouni’ created a lot of internal dialogue for me. I’d love to spend some of that time with another human being who has watched the film and discuss it out loud, in person. But that too shall have to wait in this strange new world we find ourselves suddenly in. Fedda has been on my radar as a filmmaker since I watched her doc about Syrian refugees in Jordan titled ‘Queens of Syria’ — a work I found entrancing and quite haunting too. I connect personally with her style because she deals beautifully with the concept of freedom and the inability most citizens of the world now face to find that freedom within their country of origin.
The title of the film refers to a term of endearment in Arabic, “Ayouni” which means quite literally “my eyes — my love.” The title of my piece refers to the Bus for Freedom, pictured at the top, a project featuring the photos of people who have forcibly disappeared in Syria. The double decker’s journey started in London, traveled through Paris and plans to take it all the way to Damascus. Inshallah.
There are four main characters in ‘Ayouni’, two in search of their loved ones and the two who have disappeared — Father Paolo and Bassel. Those searching are Noura, who is a human rights lawyer fighting for her love, the man she married while he was incarcerated by the Syrian regime. There is something of a young Giulietta Masina about her that makes Noura immediately likable. Machi is Father Paolo’s younger sister, a strong, intelligent Italian woman who speaks her mind and talks about her brother in the present tense. At one point, after reading a plead for his release on camera, she jokes “Look what we’re made to do! When he comes back we’ll tell him about it.”
Machi Dall’Oglio holds a photo of her brother Father Paolo in ‘Ayouni’
Since 2011 there have been more than 100,000 disappearances in Syria. The families of those vanished are offered no information on the forcibly disappeared. Are they in prison? Have they been kidnapped? Are they alive? Nothing, silence — the kind of silence that hurts more than sad knowledge. Most of those disappeared are activists and people who speak out against the current regime. As one line in the film goes “in Syria it’s safer to hold a weapon than holding a camera.”
And cameras, videos shot on cellphones capturing injustice, we know all about these days, in the midst of the Black Lives Matter movement. Except in the US those holding the cameras aren’t the ones getting killed. A lot of the footage in Fedda’s documentary (which was a project six years in the making) comes from people on the inside, those on the ground in this battle that continues on nearly a decade later. The film can be choppy, dizzying and uncomfortable to watch but it blends the live footage captured on the sly beautifully with the portraits of two men who disappeared, and the women who love them.
Ultimately, I believe we should watch films to learn something and to make us better human beings. So why watch ‘Ayouni’, you ask? Because a story of love, love that goes beyond borders and cuts across all boundaries imposed by logic, to show the colors of human courage always needs to be celebrated. We need to learn from it! And in Yasmin Fedda’s film, each central character possesses that kind of brave love — Father Paolo for the people of Syria, Machi for her brother, Bassel for his country and wife, and Noura for her spouse, but also for the freedom to be happy. Despite all the horror she has faced.
Along with the questions of whereabouts for these two men, and countless others, ‘Ayouni’ also raises the question of when does someone die? When they disappear, when they are gone for more than a number of years, once their body is found — or rather only when they are ultimately forgotten. If the latter is the case, then both Father Paolo and Bassel are still alive, still with us because while gone, they will never be forgotten.
For more info and to stream the film check out the AYOUNI website. The film is a Hakawati & Banyak Films production.