A farewell to Syrian film maker Omar Amiralay

Amidst the Egyptian revolution, as international media was focusing on Tahrir square in Cairo, a tragic event in Syria went unnoticed by large parts of European media: Omar Amiralay, documentary film maker and civil rights activists died, aged only 66, in Damascus. Amiralay was not only one of the best known Arab documentary film maker, he was an indefatigable critic of Syrian authoritarianism, an artist whose films were internationally acclaimed, but banned in his own country due to their political content. Only a week before his death, he signed a manifesto together with the prominent Syrian regime critic Michel Kilo, calling for solidarity with the protest movements in Tunisia and Egypt and stressing that also the Syrian people was striving for justice and freedom. With Omar Amiralay, the Syrian intellectual opposition looses one of its foremost members.

Contrary to most other Syrian film makers, who studied at the VGIK in Moscow, Amiralay pursued his studies in Paris. Starting with theatre, he registered with the Institut des Hautes Etudes Cinematographiques (IDHEC, now FEMIS) in 1967. From the beginning of his studies, he was skeptical about feature film making, even often felt he was at the wrong spot. However, 1968 marked a turning point. He was fascinated by the students’ revolt and joined in the demonstrations, always his camera in his hand, tirelessly documenting the historic moments. Only later did he realize that he had forgotten to put a film roll in the camera and that he had been “filming” in vain. Amiralay was fond of telling this anecdote but he also stressed the importance of this exercise for his specific way of “seeing” through the camera. The basis for the particular style that became the trade mark of his cinematographic art was laid in the streets of Paris.

After this experience of filming close to life, Omar Amiralay decided to leave film school and devote his energy entirely to documentary film making. He wanted to develop a new genre of documentary film making with a personal touch, something he used to term “author documentary film”. Back in Damascus, he started realizing his plans. After having celebrated the construction of the Assad Dam on the Euphrates river by the Baath party in his 1970 film “Film-muhawalah ‘an sadd al-furat“ („Film-Essay on the Euphrates Dam“), he took an increasingly critical stance towards the reform programs of the regime and their failed efforts at fighting poverty in rural Syria in the films “Al-hayat al-yawmiyyah fi qarya suriyya“ (”Everyday Life in a Syrian Village“, 1974 realized in collaboration with the playwright and essayist Sa’adallah Wannus) and ”Al-dajaj“ (”The Chickens“, 1977). In 2003 he visisted the Assad Dam again and afterwards realized the film “Tufan fi-balad al-ba’th“ („A Flood in Baath Country“) in which he dissected the propaganda structures of the regime and their crippling effects  on the country. In interviews with local dignitaries such as a school master and a party official he showed the discrepancies between official rhetoric and reality.

This unsparing critique earned him international recognition, but also forced him into exile in France, where he worked as an independent film maker and produced films for the French-German cultural TV channel Arte, among others. His oeuvre includes films on a great variety of themes, however, his engagement with Syrian society and his critique of the regime in Damascus remained central to his work, his films as well as his activism. He was a leading figure in the so-called “Damascus Spring” movement and one of the signatories of the “Declaration of the 99”, a call issued by 99 Syrian intellectuals that demanded the release of all political prisoners and an end to the state of emergency.

Omar Amiralay was not an “easy” film maker. Many of his films gave rise to heated debates, such as his portrait of the Lebanese prime minister Rafik Hariri, „Rajul al-hitha’ al-thahabi“ („The Man with the Golden Soles“, 1999). For some critics, he gave up his distance too easily in this film and let himself be manipulated by the lure of power and money. In „Hunalika ashiya‘ kathira kana yumkin an yatahadath ‘anha al-mara“ (“There Are So Many Things Still Left to Say”, 1997) he examined the ideals of his youth through a portrait of his friend and companion Sa’adallah Wannous. The film is a frank and critical self-reflection, filmed a short time before the death of Wannous, while he was fighting cancer in hospital. He speaks about the disappointments of their generation, the destroyed dreams of Panarabism, the Arab-Israeli conflict and the many political frustrations. Lively debates also followed this film, however it remains a testimony for the uncompromising stance of this film maker, a trait through which he had an important influence on Syrian film making and for which he will be greatly missed.

The death of Omar Amiralay is a great loss for independent thinking in Syria and for the art of truly independent film making. It is significant and sad at the same time, that the death of this man, whose tireless efforts in speaking out against injustice and lack of freedom in the Arab world has been highlighted whenever it seemed to fit in the politics of the day, was not worth a notice at a time when large parts of the population in the Arab world took to the streets and reclaimed exactly those goods his name stood for in all his work. Unfortunately, our European media remains superficial in its hunger for sensations, the “Arab masses” remain masses without faces and histories, the exotic wardrobe and statements of Ghaddafi still seem more worth a notice than the individuals who stand up for freedom in the Arab world.