La Dolce Siria: A Short Film Trilogy by Ammar al-Beik with Q&A with director (on Skype from Germany)

1. The Sun’s Incubator (2011) -11 min

In this film, premiered at Venice Film Festival in 2011, al-Beik interweaves autobiography and current events to reflect on life, death and political commitment, reporting the death of Hamza Al-khateeb, the 13-year old boy whose body was mutilated by security forces in Syrian revolution, along with the birth of al-Beik’s own baby daughter.

2. La Dolce Siria (The Sweet Syria) (2014) – 23 min

A satirical response to Federico Fellini’s 1960 comedy-drama ‘La Dolce Vita,’ this film unfolds as a poignant narrative of the dramatic events affecting Syria and leading to the extinction of love and happiness, which Fellini’s protagonist Marcello Rubini was unsuccessfully looking for decades ago.

3. Kaleidoscope (2015) – 20 min

Photojournalist Ammar meets Marie, his ex-mistress and they decide to spend the night together. She is preoccupied with her film ambitions, while he is obsessed with news from his homeland – Syria.

Ammar al-Beik was born Damascus in 1972 and is currently in exile in Berlin, al-Beik’s work is often deals with socio-political issues. With the start of the Syrian uprising, al-Beik produced a significant body of work in support of popular resistance, including graphic and digital images and several short films. He has received several international awards, including from the Venice Film Festival and the Arab Film Festival Rotterdam.

This film and Q&A is part of Celebrating Syria: A Festival of Arts and Culture (events listed here). Tickets are £5 / £3 / free for refugees and asylum seekers.