What happens to a mother when she gets a letter from her eldest daughter, who writes that she has gone to Syria to take part in the holy fight against the infidel? Samira allows the camera to observe her as she is questioned. She answers honestly, explaining that it’s as if she’s only now hearing what her daughter had been saying, between the lines. But now it’s too late. Samira has been doing everything in her power to get her daughter back for two years now, but in vain. She travels to the Syrian border in the hope of meeting her lost Nora. Then, in a Skype call, Nora just tells her mother to go home. This is one of their few moments of contact. The camera records the mother’s agonizing uncertainty about the fate of her daughter. The sequences in her tiny apartment underscore the feeling of claustrophobia.
Credits
16 min
color
DCP
Spoken languages: French, Arabic
Subtitles in: English, French
Director
Jasna Krajinovic
Production
Julie Freres for Dérives
Cinematography
Guillaume Vandenberghe
Editing
Marie-Hélène Mora
Sound
Quentin Jacques
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December 10, 2020
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