Despair becomes renewal at Japan film festivalーNHK WORLD-JAPAN NEWS

Key Concepts

• Documentary Filmmaking as Resistance: Using film to process trauma and resist the dehumanizing aspects of refugee life.
• Trauma and Memory: The profound psychological impact of displacement and loss, and the struggle to reconcile past and present.
• Dignity and Survival: Maintaining self-respect and agency in the face of adversity, even in basic necessities.
• The Editing Process: A deeply personal and internal journey of ordering one's experiences and emotions through visual and auditory elements.
• Healing and Hope: Finding renewed purpose and optimism through creative expression and connection with others, particularly the younger generation.
• Rebuilding and Resilience: The human capacity to overcome immense hardship and reconstruct one's life and homeland.

Summary

The Filmmaker's Journey: From Syria to Japan

Amma Albbe, a filmmaker from Syria, was forced to leave his home country following the 2011 revolution. He now resides in France with his wife as a refugee. His recent participation in the Yamagata International Documentary Film Festival in Japan, where his latest film was a finalist, provided an unexpected source of inspiration.

"The 222 Minutes": A Documentary of Refugee Life

Alb's documentary, titled "The 222 Minutes," offers a stark depiction of the profound loss and bleak existence experienced by himself and others in an asylum seeker camp in a Berlin suburb. The film commences in September 2014, detailing Alb's eight-month stay in a small room within the camp. He meticulously documented his experiences using his phone camera, capturing everyday scenes such as long queues at the laundry, men playing cards, and the disarray in a shared kitchen. Alb describes this period as feeling "like I was in the middle of swimming bull under the water for eight months. Swimming uh no oxygen but there is energy to stay down. discovering, hearing and um and thinking all the time. This is it looks like the real meaning of trauma."

The Rigorous Editing Process

The sheer volume of footage captured during his time in the camp amounted to 150 hours. The editing process for "The 222 Minutes" was an arduous ten-year endeavor. Albbe emphasizes the profound personal nature of editing, stating, "The real meaning of editing to edit your inside through playing with images and sound. You need to have the order from inside not from outside."

Maintaining Dignity and Reclaiming Identity

Within the camp, Albbe and his fellow residents grappled with preserving their dignity. As an artist, Albbe sought to recreate a sense of normalcy and connection to his homeland by making his own yogurt, reminiscent of a flavor from Syria. He articulates this struggle as being "about dignity and responsibility thinking of others about others and to survive at the end. It doesn't mean we need to stay with the garbage in the kitchen." The film also touches upon the experiences of other refugees, including a man who suffered a cranial injury from an air strike in Syria and had a shell fragment removed by a German surgeon.

The Fall of the Assad Regime and the Dilemma of Return

In December 2024, thirteen years after Albbe's departure, the Assad regime in Syria suddenly collapsed. This event presented Albbe with the possibility of returning home. However, the weight of what had been lost during his absence, including the death of his mother, made an immediate return difficult.

A Wife's Visit and a Home Desecrated

In September of the same year, Albbe's wife, Carolene, visited Syria, a country she had been forced to leave in 2012. Albbe had asked her to check on their home in Damascus. Carolene reported that the house had been ransacked, likely by former regime forces. This experience prompted Albbe to contemplate returning more seriously, reflecting, "I think um everyone who was forced to leave Syria or his homeland is missing something and uh we'll find this something as soon as we get there."

Inspiration in Yamagata: A Renewed Zest for Life

Alb's experience at the Yamagata International Documentary Film Festival proved to be a turning point. A filmmaking workshop he conducted for local children ignited a renewed sense of purpose and optimism. He discovered the creative process to be fluid and revealing: "You don't need all the time to write the scenario before and be sure what you are doing because in the editing you discover a beautiful things when you are collecting things Love and pain. This is This is what I learned. Love and pain. This is what I learned."

Albbe viewed the children in Yamagata as a symbol of the future, bolstering his confidence in the potential for Syria's future progress. He described the experience as receiving "my medicine from Yamagata with the angels around the children the future of Japan they was my oxygen it gives me power this is why it's about healing to make film and to screen it for other people in Japan from Syria to Japan I feel now I'm I have more power to go back directly we are strong as a humanity we can rebuild ourself okay I believe in Syrian."

Conclusion: Transformation and Hope

While the hardships of refugee life will undoubtedly remain a part of Albbe's experience, his time at the Yamagata festival marked a significant transformation. His outlook on Syria's future has become considerably brighter, fueled by a renewed sense of hope and the belief in humanity's capacity for rebuilding and resilience.