The Syrian film "Her Stories" won the award for the best documentary short film, at the Toronto Nollywood International Film Festival in Canada, and its organizers expressed their happiness with the arrival of the message from the work on the role and presence of Syrian women.

And the film “Her Stories” by the young Syrian director Abdel Qader Habak, and produced by “Habak Film” and the “Heinrich Bell” organization. The film tells the stories of 3 young Syrian women, the nurse Malaka Harbelia and the two human rights activists Fatima Al-Hamid and Wiam Ghobash, and talks about how the Syrian revolution changed their lives and affected the transformation of their paths. , and monitors their stability during the war and the response to their self-realization.

heroine stories

Each of the film’s heroines has a story told within the different geography of Syria. A queen from Aleppo has worked as a nurse in the city’s hospitals since 2007. When the revolution began in Syria and the armed conflict escalated, the nurse faced the dangers of death from the bombing of the Syrian regime and its direct targeting of hospitals and medical centers in opposition-controlled areas.

Malaka was a witness to the regime's bombing of a hospital incubating newborn children, and then appeared in a video recording in 2016 crying in the first moments following the bombing, amid the destruction and dust caused by it, after the children escaped death.

During her career, Malaka was injured 5 times, but that did not deter her from continuing her humanitarian work in serving patients.

In recognition of her efforts and sacrifices, the Queen was awarded in 2018 the Best Nurse with a Humanitarian Impact award by the United Nations.

As for Fatima Al-Hamid, she is from Idlib and holds a degree in Arabic. In addition to her teaching work, Fatima has been active in defending the rights of Syrian women and has joined several human rights organizations in voluntary work, to obtain training in the field of combating violence against women.

One of the most important turning points in Fatima’s life was the killing of her husband in the bombing of the Syrian regime on the countryside of Idlib, and her bearing a great responsibility in taking care of her family and continuing the human rights and humanitarian work in support of Syrian women who are being marginalized.

The third character is Wiam Ghobash, and the circumstances of the war forced her to resort to Lebanon to face very harsh conditions, but she was able to prove herself and work as an activist to support Syrian women in Lebanon who suffer from restrictions and poor surrounding conditions.

Confidence and message

And about the idea of ​​the film, director Abdel Qader Habak told Al Jazeera Net that it had been with him and his friend, photojournalist Milad Shehabi since 2014, and it was centered around documenting the story of the nurse Malaka in Aleppo, but the conditions of the siege imposed on civilians in Aleppo postponed the idea.

The selection of the heroines of the movie "Her Stories" - according to Habak - came because the characters have been known to the director and photographers for a long time in Syria, and a state of trust was formed during the work on filming, which contributed to the success of the message of the heroines of the film.

Habak believes that the main idea of ​​the work is to shed light on the Syrian woman and how she was able to develop herself during the revolution, after obtaining space and new opportunities, considering that most films focus on the suffering of the Syrian woman, and did not monitor the bright aspects of her life.

Regarding the conditions of work and filming, photojournalist Milad Al-Shihabi indicated that filming the film took time from 2015 until the end of 2019, and the filming was in 3 countries: Syria, Lebanon, and the Netherlands.

Shihabi outlines the difficulties the film faced in filming and working in light of the bombing and siege of Aleppo by the Syrian regime, but the team overcame these obstacles and reached international festivals.

It is noteworthy that the film "Her Stories" participated in many international festivals within 14 participations, was nominated for 5 international awards, and won the Cannes Festival award in France last September, as well as the last award a few days ago at the Toronto Nollywood International Film Festival in Canada. .