Feature film
Stars in Broad Daylight
نجوم النهار
Oussama Mohammed · 1988
Synopsis
Two families from the coastal mountains agree on an exchange: each gives a daughter and takes a daughter-in-law, and two marriages are settled in a single bargain. Around the preparations stand the brothers, the uncles, the village notables and those who have made good in the city. The day moves from the contemplation of the mountains to the din of a wedding, then to Damascus, and one gradually sees to whom each decision belongs. The moment comes when one of the two brides-to-be stops keeping silent.
Context
Produced by the state body itself, it was screened only once in Damascus in 1988, before artists and intellectuals, and was then banned from cinemas on the spot. The authorities nevertheless let it travel to festivals to show an open face: Cannes, Valladolid, Rabat, and a modest distribution in Europe. It took thirty-seven years for it to reappear in its own country. Its author notes in his diary, on 20 March 1988, that on that day he is a Syrian citizen, and says he put the dictator in front of the camera rather than feel him behind his shoulder.
Who it is for
In the dialect of the coast, subtitled in foreign versions. One must know that the political charge comes through the family and through marriage, never through speeches.
Prizes and reception
Presented at Cannes the year it was banned, awarded prizes at Valencia and Rabat, and held by many to be the most critical film ever made about Syrian society.