“This faithful man is a soldier with a monolog in the desert.
Men Men Men
Men
Youth
The youth
The eyes
The hands
The gun
The sand
Tell me about being a man in Syria”
In this collaborative work between me and the Faithful, we are not presenting the real drama, but trying to reflect on how hard it is to be a soldier in Syria even if the man is not serving in a dangerous area. We know it can last for years, and it can be a lot uglier than our peaceful visual piece.
We developed this work together remotely, facing the normal obstacles… everything…
“Compact” is the obvious name I called this short documentary, composed of documentary footage from Damascus’s biggest bus station located beneath “The Bridge of The President”, and the surrounding streets and other three short films.
Majd who is an instructor at the faculty of Fine Arts documents some minutes of his trip to the University. Later a very important addition came, three videos made by the street photographer Mohammad Nammour showcasing what is happening inside the public transportation.
The importance of the material is simply because raising a camera or a cellphone in public places in Syria is not an allowed activity, therefore to do it, while walking in the streets as Majd did, or sitting at a very close distance from other strangers as Nammour did, may have severe consequences. Without this kind of inside observation, no matter how short or reduced it is, the real suffering of the Syrian street will always be lost and unacknowledged.
In one of these videos, we see a very awkward argument between a passenger and a microbus Driver reflecting the heavy impacts of the economical catastrophe in Syria. Witnessing how the Syrian lira value is dropping continuously until it is treated like an old piece of paper that everyone is trying to get rid of.
In this video three artists based in Damascus attempt to present to you some of what it feels like, not just the traffic, but everything else we guess.